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t»  f.V, 


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\ 


THE    FIRST    EPISTLE    TO    THE 
CORINTHIANS. 


'    '""^.^.iilSf^ 


BY   THE/REV. 

MARCUS    l)ODS,    D.D. 


NEW   YORK : 

A.  C.  Armstrong  &  Son, 

714   BrOADWAsc'. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER    L 

FACE 

Introduction     ------••-3 

CHAPTER  IT. 
The  Church  in  Corinth  ---««»-    17 

CHAPTER   III. 
The  Factions    ---------33 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Foolishness  of  Preaching      -        •       -       -  49 

CHAPTER  V. 
Divine  Wisdom  -.-.---•-•-65 

CHAPTER  VI 
God's  Husbandry  and  Building      -----    83 

CHAPTER  VII. 
The  Ministry    -----•-•  99 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
Excommunication;  or,  Purging  out  the  Old  Leaven-  115 


vi  CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER   IX. 

PAGE 

On  Going  to  Law     -.---0--131 


CHAPTER  X. 

Fornication       •        -  -        •  o       -       -  147 

CHAPTER  -XL 
Marriage  -«<»---«»•»-  165 

CHAPTER  Xn. 
Liberty  and  Love     -        -       -       -       -       »       «       -I79 

CHAPTER  XIIL 
Maintenance  of  the  Ministry         -        «       -       »        -  I97 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Not  all  who  Run  Win    -        .-•••-  213 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Fallacious  Presumptions         --»-•-  229 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
The  Veil  »»«.-»        -•••-  243 

CHAPTER   XVIL 
Abuse  of  the  Lord's  Supper  -        -       o       o       •       =  261 

CHAPTER  XVIIL 
Concerning  Spiritual  Gifts    -        -       «       «       •       -  277 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
No  Gift  like  Love    ---••---  295 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

PAGE 

Spiritual  Gifts  and  Public  Worship-         ®       «       -  313 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
The  Resurrection  of  Christ  -        -        «       «       e.-       =  327 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
The  Resurrection  of  Christ  {continued^      ==«•,»  341 

CPIAPTER  XXIII. 
Consequences  of  denying  Resurrection        o       «.        «  357 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
T.iE  Spiritual  Body         -        -        -        o        ^^z        a        =.  373 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
The  Poor  =^-«.-..».,  389 


iHTKODUCTION. 


'After  these  things  Paul  departed  from  Athens,  and  came  to 
Corinth  ;  and  found  a  certain  Jew  named  Aquila,  born  in  Pontus, 
lately  come  from  Italy,  with  his  wife  Priscilla  ;  (because  that  Claudius 
had  commanded  all  Jews  to  depart  from  Rome  :)  and  came  unto 
them.  And  because  he  was  of  the  same  craft,  he  abode  with  them, 
and  wrought  :  for  by  their  occupation  they  were  tentmakers.  And 
he  reasoned  in  the  synagogue  everysabbath,  and  persuaded  the  Jews 
and  the  Greeks.  And  when  Silas  and  Timotheus  were  come  from 
Macedonia,  Paul  was  pressed  in  the  spirit,  and  testified  to  the 
Jews  that  Jesus  was  Christ.  And  when  they  opposed  themselves, 
and  blasphemed,  he  shook  his  raiment,  and  said  unto  them.  Your 
blood  be  upon  your  own  heads ;  I  am  clean :  from  henceforth  I  will 
go  unto  the  Gentiles.  And  he  departed  thence,  and  entered  into 
a  certain  man's  house,  named  Justus,  one  that  worshipped  God, 
^^  hose  house  joined  hard  to  the  synagogue.  And  Crispus,  the  chief 
ruler  of  the  synagogue,  believed  on  the  Lord  with  all  his  house; 
and  many  of  the  Corinthians  hearing  believed,  and  were  baptized. 
Then  spake  the  Lord  to  Paul  in  the  night  by  a  vision,  Be  not  afraid, 
but  speak,  and  hold  not  thy  peace  :  for  I  am  with  thee,  and  no  man 
shall  set  on  thee  to  hurt  thee  ;  for  I  have  much  people  in  this  city. 
And  he  continued  there  a  year  and  six  months,  teaching  the  word 
of  God  among  them.  And  when  Gallio  was  the  deputy  of  Achaia, 
the  Jews  made  insurrection  with  one  accord  against  Paul,  and 
brought  him  to  the  judgment  seat,  saying.  This  fellow  persuadeth 
men  to  worship  God  contrary  to  the  law.  And  when  Paul  was 
now  about  to  open  his  mouth,  Gallio  said  unto  the  Jews,  If  it  were 
a  matter  of  wrong  or  wicked  lewdness,  O  ye  Jews,  reason  would 
that  I  should  bear  with  you :  but  if  it  be  a  question  of  words 
and  names,  and  of  your  law,  look  ye  to  it;  for  I  will  be  no  judge 
of  such  matters.  And  he  drave  them  from  the  judgment  seat.  Then 
all  the  Greeks  took  Sosthenes,  the  chief  ruler  of  the  synagogue,  and 
beat  him  before  the  judgment  seat.  And  Gallio  cared  for  none 
of  those  things.  And  Paul  after  this  tarried  there  yet  a  good  while, 
and  then  took  his  leave  of  the  brethren,  and  sailed  thence  into  Syiia, 
and  with  him  Priscilla  and  Aquila ;  having  shorn  his  head  in 
Ccnchrca  :  for  he  had  a  vow." — Acts  xviii.  l-l8. 


1. 

INTRODUCTION. 

CORINTH  was  the  first  Gentile  city  in  which  Paul 
spent  any  considerable  time.  It  afforded  him  the 
opportunities  he  sought  as  a  preacher  of  Christ.  Lying 
as  it  did  on  the  famous  Isthmus  which  connected 
Northern  and  Southern  Greece,  and  defended  by  an 
almost  impregnable  citadel,  it  became  a  place  of  great 
political  importance.  Its  position  gave  it  also  comi- 
mercial  advantages.  Many  traders  bringing  goods  from 
Asia  to  Italy  preferred  to  unlade  at  Cenchrea  and 
carry  their  bales  across  the  narrow  neck  of  land  rather 
than  risk  the  dangers  of  doubling  Cape  Malea.  So 
commonly  was  this  done  that  arrangements  were  made 
for  carrying  the  smaller  ships  themselves  across  the 
Isthmus  on  rollers ;  and  shortly  after  Paul's  visit  Nero 
cut  the  first  turf  of  an  intended,  but  never  finished, 
canal  to  connect  the  two  seas. 

Becoming  by  its  situation  and  importance  the  head 
of  the  Achaian  League,  it  bore  the  brunt  of  the  con- 
queror's onslaught  and  was  completely  destroyed  by 
the  Roman  general  Mummius  in  the  year  146  B.C.  For 
a  hundred  years  it  lay  in  ruins,  peopled  by  few 
but  relic-hunters,  who  groped  among  the  demolished 
temples  for  bits  of  sculpture  or  Corinthian  brass.  The 
flU-disr.erninp-  eve   of  lulins  Cap«iar   however   could  not 


4       THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

overlook  the  excellence  of  the  site ;  and  accordingly  he 
sent  a  colony  of  Roman  freedmen,  the  most  industrious 
of  the  metropolitan  population,  to  rebuild  and  replenish. 
the  city.  Hence  the  names  of  Corinthians  mentioned 
in  the  New  Testament  are  mainly  such  as  betoken  a 
Roman  and  servile  origin,  such  as  Gaius,  Fortunatus, 
Justus,  Crispus,  Quartus,  Achaicus.  Under  these 
auspices  Corinth  speedily  regained  something  of  its 
former  beauty,  all  its  former  wealth,  and  apparently 
more  than  its  original  size.  But  the  old  profligacy 
was  also  to  some  extent  revived  ;  and  in  Paul's  day 
"  to  live  as  they  do  at  Corinth  "  was  the  equivalent  for 
living  in  luxury  and  licentiousness.  Sailors  from  all 
parts  with  a  little  money  to  spend,  merchants  eager  to 
compensate  for  the  privations  of  a  voyage,  refugees  and 
adventurers  of  all  kinds,  were  continually  passing 
through  the  city,  introducing  foreign  customs  and  con- 
founding moral  distinctions.  Too  plainly  are  the  innate 
vices  of  the  Corinthians  reflected  in  this  Epistle.  On 
the  stage  the  Corinthian  was  usually  represented  drunk, 
and  Paul  found  that  this  characteristic  vice  was  allowed 
to  follow  his  converts  even  to  the  communion  table. 
In  the  letter  there  are  also  discernible  some  reminis- 
cences of  what  Paul  had  seen  in  the  Isthmian  and 
gladiatorial  contests.  He  had  noted,  too,  as  he  walked 
through  Corinth,  how  the  fire  of  the  Roman  army  had 
consumed  the  meaner  houses  of  wood,  hay,  stubble, 
but  had  left  standing,  though  charred,  the  precious 
marbles. 

Nowhere  do  we  see  so  clearly  as  in  this  Epistle  the 
multifarious  and  delicate  work  required  of  one  on  whom 
lay  the  care  of  all  the  Churches.  A  host  of  difficult 
questions  poured  in  upon  him  :  questions  regarding 
conduct,    questions  of  casuistry,   questions  about   the 


I.]  INTRODUCTION. 


ordering  of  public  worship  and  social  intercourse,  as 
well  as  questions  which  struck  to  the  very  root  of  the 
Christian  faith.  Are  we  to  dine  with  our  heathen 
relatives  ?  May  we  intermarry  with  those  who  are 
not  yet  Christian  ?  may  we  marry  at  all  ?  Can  slaves 
continue  in  the  service  of  heathen  masters  ?  What 
relation  does  the  Communion  hold  to  our  ordinary 
meals  ?  Is  the  man  who  speaks  with  tongues  a 
superior  kind  of  Christian^  and  must  the  prophet  who 
speaks  with  the  Spirit  be  allowed  to  interrupt  other 
speakers  ?  Paul  in  a  previous  letter  had  instructed  the 
Corinthians  on  some  of  these  points,  but  they  had  mis- 
understood him ;  and  he  now  takes  up  their  difficulties 
point  by  point,  and  finally  disposes  of  them.  Had 
nothing  been  required  but  the  solution  of  practical 
difficulties,  Paul's  part  had  not  been  so  delicate  to  play. 
But  even  through  their  request  for  advice  there  shone 
the  ineradicable  Greek  vices  of  vanity,  restless  intellec- 
tualism,  litigiousness,  and  s-^nsuality.  They  even  seemed 
to  be  on  the  perilous  brink  of  glorying  in  a  spurious 
liberality  which  could  condone  vices  condemned  by  the 
heathen.  In  these  circumstances  the  calmness  and 
patience  with  which  Paul  pronounces  on  their  entangle- 
ments are  striking.  But  even  more  striking  are  the 
boundless  intellectual  vigour,  the  practical  sagacity,  the 
ready  apphcation  to  life,  of  the  profoundest  Christian 
principles.  In  reading  the  Epistle,  one  is  amazed  at 
the  brevity  and  yet  completeness  with  which  intricate 
practical  problems  are  discussed,  the  unerring  firmness 
with  which,  through  all  plausible  sophistry  and  falla- 
cious scruples,  the  radical  principle  is  laid  hold  of, 
and  the  sharp  finality  with  which  it  is  expressed. 
Nor  is  there  any  lack  in  the  Epistle  of  the  warm,  rapid, 
and    stirring   eloquence  which    is    associated  with  the 


> 


6        T/l£  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

name  of  Paul.  It  was  a  happy  circumstance  for  the 
future  of  Christianity  that  in  those  early  days^  when 
there  were  almost  as  many  wild  suggestions  and 
foolish  opinions  as  there  were  converts,  there  should 
have  been  in  the  Church  this  one  clear,  practical 
judgment,  this  pure  embodiment  of  the  wisdom  of 
Christianity. 

It  is  in  this  Epistle  we  get  the  clearest  view  of  the 
actual  difficulties  encountered  by  Christianity  in  a 
heathen  community.  We  here  see  the  religion  of 
Christ  confronted  by  the  culture,  and  the  vices,  and  the 
various  social  arrangements  of  paganism  ;  we  see  the 
ferment  and  turmoil  its  introduction  occasioned,  the 
changes  it  wrought  in  daily  life  and  common  customs, 
the  difficulty  men  honestly  experienced  in  compre- 
hending what  their  new  principles  required ;  we  see 
how  the  higher  aims  and  views  of  Christianity  sifted 
the  social  customs  of  the  ancient  world,  now  allowing 
and  now  rejecting ;  and,  above  all,  we  see  the  principles 
on  which  we  ourselves  must  proceed  in  solving  the 
social  and  ecclesiastical  difficulties  that  embarrass  our- 
selves. It  is  in  this  Epistle,  in  short,  that  we  see  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  in  his  proper  and  peculiar 
element,  exhibiting  the  applicability  of  the  religion  of 
Christ  to  the  Gentile  world  and  its  power,  not  to  satisfy 
merely  the  aspirations  of  devout  Jews,  but  to  scatter 
the  darkness  and  quicken  the  dead  soul  of  the  pagan 
world. 

Paul's  experience  in  Corinth  is  full  of  significance. 
On  arriving  at  Corinth,  he  went,  as  usual,  to  the  syna- 
gogue ;  and  when  his  message  was  rejected  by  the  Jews, 
he  betook  himself  to  the  Gentiles.  Next  door  to  the 
synagogue,  in  the  house  of  a  convert  called  Justus,  the 
Christian  congregation  was  founded  ;  and,  to  the  annoy- 


i.  I.]  INTRODUCTION. 


ance  of  the  Jews,  one  of  the  rulers  of  the  synagogue, 
Crispus  by  name,  attached  himseh"  to  it.  The  Jewish 
irritation  and  envy  smouldered  until  a  new  governor 
came  from  Rome,  and  then  it  found  vent.  This  new 
governor  was  one  of  the  most  popular  men  of  his  time, 
the  brother  of  Nero's  tutor,  the  well-known  Seneca. 
He  was  himself  so  markedly  the  representative  of 
"  sweetness  and  light"  that  he  was  commonly  spoken  of 
as  "  the  sweet  Gallio."  The  Jews  in  Corinth  evidently 
fancied  that  a  man  of  this  character  would  be  facile 
and  would  desire  to  make  favour  with  all  parties  in 
his  new  province.  They  accordingly  appealed  to  him, 
but  were  met  with  a  prompt  and  decided  rebuff.  Their 
new  governor  assured  them  he  had  no  jurisdictioi 
over  such  questions.  As  soon  as  he  hears  it  is  not 
a  matter  in  which  the  property  or  persons  of  his 
lieges  is  implicated  he  bids  his  lictors  clear  the  court. 
The  rabble  that  always  gathers  round  a  courthouse, 
seeing  a  Jew  ignorainiously  dismissed,  set  upon  him 
and  beat  him  under  the  very  eye  of  the  judge,  the 
beginning  of  that  furious,  unreasoning,  brutal  out- 
rage which  has  pursued  the  Jews  in  all  countries  of 
Christendom. 

Gallio  has  become  the  synonym  for  religious  indiffer- 
ence. We  call  the  easy-going,  good-natured  man  who 
meets  all  your  religious  appeals  with  a  shrug  of  the 
shoulders  or  a  genial,  bantering  answer  a  Gallio.  This 
is  perhaps  a  little  hard  upon  Gallio,  who  no  doubt 
attended  to  his  own  religion  in  much  the  same  spirit 
as  his  friends.  When  the  narrative  says  that  "he 
cared  for  none  of  those  things,"  it  means  that  he  gave 
no  heed  to  what  seemed  a  common  street  brawl.  It 
is  rather  the  haughtiness  of  the  Roman  proconsul  than 
the  indifference  of  the  man  of  the  world  that  appears 


8        THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO  THE  CORINTHIANS. 

in  his  conduct.  These  squabbles  among  Jews  about 
matters  of  their  law  were  not  affairs  he  could  stoop  to 
investigate  or  was  by  his  office  required  to  investigate. 
And  yet  it  is  not  Gallio's  proconsulship  of  Achaia  nor 
his  relationship  to  Roman  celebrities  that  has  made  his 
name  familiar  to  the  modern  world,  but  his  connection 
with  these  wretched  Jews  that  appeared  before  his 
small  chair  that  morning.  In  Paul's  little,  insignificant, 
worn  figure  it  was  not  to  be  expected  he  should  see  any- 
thing so  remarkable  as  to  stimulate  inquiry ;  he  could 
not  have  comprehended  that  the  chief  connection  in 
which  his  name  would  afterwards  appear  would  be  in 
connection  with  Paul ;  and  yet  had  he  but  known,  had 
he  but  interested  himself  in  what  evidently  so  deeply 
interested  his  new  subjects,  how  different  might  his 
own  history  have  become,  and  how  different,  too,  the 
history  of  Christianity.  But  filled  with  a  Roman's  dis- 
dain for  questions  of  which  the  sword  could  not  cut 
the  knot,  and  with  a  Roman's  reluctance  to  implicate 
himself  with  anything  which  was  not  sufficiently  of 
this  world  to  be  adjusted  by  Roman  law,  he  cleared  his 
court  and  called  the  next  case.  The  '*  sweet  Gallio," 
patient  and  affable  to  every  other  kind  of  complainant, 
had  nothing  but  disdain  and  undisguised  repugnance 
for  these  Eastern  dreamers.  The  Roman,  who  could 
sympathize  with  almost  every  nationality  and  find 
room  for  all  men  in  the  wide  lap  of  the  empire,  made 
himself  detested  in  the  East  by  his  harsh  contempt  for 
mysticism  and  religion,  and  was  met  by  a  disdain  deeper 
than  his  own. 

"  The  brooding  East  with  awe  beheld 
Her  impious  younger  world  ; 
The  Roman  tempest  swelled  and  swelled, 
And  on  her  head  was  hurled  : 


i.i.]  INTRODUCTION, 


The  East  bowed  low  before  the  blast 

In  patient,  deep  disdain ; 
She  let  the  legions  thunder  past, 

And  plunged  in  thought  again." 

Now  in  the  Englishman  there  is  much  that  closely 
resembles  the  Roman  character.  There  is  the  same 
ability  for  practical  achievement,  the  same  capacity  for 
conquest  and  for  making  much  oi  conquered  peoples, 
the  same  reverence  for  law,  the  same  faculty  for  dealing 
with  the  world  and  the  human  race  as  it  actually  is  ! 
the  same  relish  for  and  mastery  ot  the  present  system 
of  things.  But  along  with  these  qualities  there  go  in 
both  races  their  natural  defects  :  a  tendency  to  forget 
the  ideal  and  the  unseen  in  the  seen  and  the  actual ;  to 
measure  all  things  by  material  standards ;  to  be  more 
deeply  impressed  with  the  conquests  of  the  sword  than 
with  those  of  the  Spirit,  and  with  the  gains  that  are 
counted  in  coin  rather  than  with  those  that  are  seen  in 
character;  and  to  be  far  more  intensely  interested  in 
whatever  concerns  politics  than  in  anything  that  con- 
cerns religion.  So  pronounced  is  this  materialistic,  or 
at  any  rate  worldly,  tendency  in  this  country,  that  it 
has  been  formulated  into  a  system  for  the  conduct  of 
life,  under  the  name  of  secularism.  And  so  popular 
has  this  system  become,  especially  among  working-men, 
that  the  chief  promoter  of  it  believes  that  his  adherents 
may  be  numbered  by  hundreds  of  thousands. 

The  essential  idea  of  secularism  is  "  that  precedence 
should  be  given  to  the  duties  of  this  life  over  those 
which  pertain  to  another  life,"  the  reason  being  that 
this  life  is  the  first  in  certainty,  and  should  therefore 
be  the  first  in  importance.  Mr.  Holyoake  carefully 
states  his  position  in  these  words  :  ^'  We  do  not  say 
that  every  man  ought  to  give  an  exclusive  a' t.  ntion  to 


lo        THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

this  world,  because  that  would  be  to  commit  the  old 
sin  of  dogmatism,  and  exclude  the  possibility  of  another 
world  and  of  walking  by  different  light  from  that  by 
which  alone  we  are  able  to  walk.  But  as  our  knowledge 
is  confined  to  this  life,  and  testimony,  and  conjecture, 
and  probability  are  all  that  can  be  set  forth  with  respect 
to  another  life,  we  think  we  are  justified  in  giving 
precedence  to  the  duties  of  this  state  and  of  attaching 
primary  importance  to  the  morality  of  man  to  man." 
This  statement  has  the  merit  of  being  undogmatic,  but 
it  is  in  consequence  proportionately  vague.  If  a  man 
is  not  to  give  exclusive  attention  to  this  world,  how 
much  attention  is  he  to  give  to  another  ?  Would  Mr. 
Holyoake  think  the  amount  of  attention  most  Christians 
give  to  the  other  world  excessive  ?  If  so,  the  attention 
he  thinks  suitable  must  be  limited  indeed. 

But  if  this  theoretical  statement,  framed  in  view  of 
the  exigencies  of  controversy,  be  scarcely  intelligible, 
the  position  of  the  practical  secularist  is  perfectly  in- 
telligible. He  says  to  himself,  I  have  occupations  and 
duties  now  that  require  all  my  strength ;  and  if  there  is 
another  world,  the  best  preparation  for  it  I  can  have  is 
to  do  thoroughly  and  with  all  my  strength  the  duties 
now  pressing  upon  me.  Most  of  us  have  felt  the 
attraction  of  this  position.  It  has  a  sound  of  candid, 
manly  common-sense,  and  appeals  to  the  English 
character  in  us,  to  our  esteem  for  what  is  practical. 
Besides,  it  is  perfectly  true  that  the  best  preparation 
for  any  future  world  is  to  do  thoroughly  well  the  duties 
of  our  present  state.  But  the  whole  question  remains, 
What  are  the  duties  of  the  present  state  ?  These  can 
not  be  determined  unless  we  come  to  some  decision 
as  to  the  truth  or  untruth  of  Christianity.  If  there  is 
a  God,  it  is  not  merely  in  the  future,  but  now,  that  we 


i.  I.]  INTRODUCTION. 


have  duties  to  Him,  that  all  our  duties  are  tinged  with 
the  idea  of  His  presence  and  of  our  relation  to  Him. 
It  is  absurd  to  defer  all  consideration  of  God  to  a  future 
world ;  God  is  as  much  in  this  world  as  in  any  :  and  if 
so,  our  whole  life,  in  every  part  of  it,  must  be,  not  a 
secular,  but  a  godly,  life — a  life  we  live  well  and  can 
only  live  well  when  we  live  it  in  fellowship  with  Him. 
The  mind  that  can  divide  life  into  duties  of  the  present 
and  duties  that  concern  the  future  entirely  misappre- 
hends the  teaching  of  Christianity,  and  misconceives 
what  life  is.  If  a  man  does  not  know  whether  there  is 
a  God,  then  he  cannot  know  what  his  present  duties 
are,  neither  can  he  do  these  duties  as  he  ought.  He 
may  do  them  better  than  I  can  ;  but  he  doss  not  do 
them  as  well  as  he  himself  could  were  he  owning  the 
presence  and  accepting  the  gracious,  sanctifying  influ- 
ences of  the  Divine  Spirit. 

To  the  help  of  secularism  comes  also  in  our  case  an- 
other influence,  which  told  with  Gallio.  Even  the  gentle 
and  affable  Gallio  felt  annoyed  that  so  squalid  a  case 
should  be  among  the  first  that  came  before  him  in  Achaia. 
He  had  left  Rome  with  the  good  wishes  of  the  Imperial 
Court,  had  made  a  triumphal  procession  of  several 
weeks  to  Corinth,  had  been  installed  there  with  all  the 
pomp  that  Roman  officials,  military  and  civil,  could 
devise ;  he  had  been  met  and  acknowledged  by  the 
authorities,  had  sworn  in  his  new  officers,  had  caused 
his  tesselated  pavemxcnt  to  be  laid  and  his  chair  of 
state  set  down  :  and  as  if  in  mockery  of  all  this  cere- 
mony and  display  of  power  came  this  pitiful  squabble 
from  the  synagogue,  a  matter  of  which  not  a  man  of 
standing  in  his  court  knew  or  cared  anything,  a  matter 
in  which  Jews  and  slaves  alone  were  interested. 
Christianity  has  always  found  its  warmest  supporters 


12      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

in  the  lower  strata  of  society.  It  has  not  always  been 
quite  respectable.  And  here  again  Englishmen  are 
like  Romans  :  they  are  strongly  influenced  by  what  is 
respectable,  by  what  has  position  and  standing  in  the 
world.  If  Christianity  were  zealously  promoted  by 
princes,  and  leading  officials,  and  distinguished  pro- 
fessors and  writers  of  genius,  how  much  easier  would 
it  be  to  accept  it ,  but  its  most  zealous  promoters  are 
so  commonly  men  of  no  education,  men  with  odd 
names,  men  whose  grammar  and  pronunciation  put 
them  beyond  the  pale  of  good  society,  men  whose 
methods  are  rough  and  whose  views  are  unphiloso- 
phical  and  crude.  As  in  Corinth,  so  now,  not  many 
wise,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble,  are  called  ;  and 
we  must  beware  therefore  of  shrinking,  as  Gallio  did, 
from  what  is  essentially  the  most  powerful  agent  for 
good  in  the  world  because  it  is  so  often  found  with 
vulgar  and  repulsive  adjuncts.  The  earthen  vessels, 
as  Paul  reminds  us,  the  pots  of  coarsest  clay,  chipped 
and  crusted  with  coarse  contact  with  the  world,  may 
yet  hold  treasure  of  priceless  value. 

It  is  always  a  question  how  far  we  should  endeavour 
to  become  all  things  to  all  men,  to  win  the  wise  of  this 
world  by  presenting  Christianity  as  a  philosophy,  and 
to  win  the  well-born  and  cultured  by  presenting  it  in 
the  dress  of  an  attractive  style.  Paul  as  he  left  Athens, 
where  he  had  met  with  so  little  success,  was  apparently 
exercised  with  this  same  question.  He  had  tried  to 
meet  the  Athenians  on  their  own  ground,  showing  his 
familiarity  with  their  writers;  but  he  seems  to  think 
that  at  Corinth  another  method  may  be  more  successful, 
and,  as  he  tells  them,  "  I  determined  to  know  nothing 
among  you  save  Jtsus  Christ  and  Him  crucified."  It 
was,  he  says,  with  much  fear  and  trembling  he  adopted 


i.  I.]  INTRODUCTION.  13 

this  course ;  he  was  weak  and  dispirited  at  the  time, 
at  any  rate ;  and  it  is  plain  that  his  resolve  to  abandon 
all  such  appeals  as  might  tell  with  rhetoricians  cost 
him  an  effort  and  made  a  deep  impression  upon  him. 
He  himself  saw  so  clearly  the  foolishness  of  the  Cross  ; 
he  knew  so  well  what  a  field  for  mockery  was  presented 
to  the  Greek  mind  by  the  preaching  of  salvation  through 
a  crucified  person.  He  was  very  conscious  of  the  poor 
appearance  he  made  as  a  speaker  among  these  fluent 
Greeks,  whose  ears  were  as  cultivated  as  musicians',  and 
whose  sense  of  beauty,  trained  by  seeing  their  picked 
young  men  contend  in  the  games,  received  a  shock 
from  ''his  weak  and  contemptible  bodily  presence,"  as 
they  called  it.  Yet,  all  things  considered,  he  made  up 
his  mind  that  he-  would  trust  his  success  to  the  simple 
statement  of  facts.  He  would  preach  "  Christ  and 
Him  crucified."  He  would  tell  them  what  Jesus  had 
been  and  done.  He  felt  jealous  of  anything  which 
might  attract  men  to  his  preaching  save  the  Cross  of 
Christ.  And  he  was  more  successful  in  Corinth  than 
he  had  been  elsewhere.  In  that  profligate  city  he  was 
obliged  to  stay  eighteen  months,  because  the  work  so 
grew  under  his  hand. 

And  so  it  has  ever  been  since.  As  matter  of  fact, 
it  is  not  Christ's  teaching,  but  His  death,  which  has 
kindled  the  enthusiasm  and  the  devotion  of  men.  It  is 
this  which  has  conquered  and  won  them,  and  delivered 
them  from  the  bondage  of  self,  and  set  them  in  a  larger 
world.  It  is  when  we  believe  that  this  Person  has 
loved  us  with  a  love  stronger  than  death  that  we 
become  His.  It  is  when  we  can  use  Paul's  words 
"  who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me  "  that  we  feel, 
as  Paul  felt,  the  constraining  power  of  this  love.  It  is 
this  that  forms  between  the  soul  and  Christ  that  secret 


■\ 


14      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

tie  which  has  been  the  strength  and  happiness  of  so 
many  Hves.  If  our  own  hfe  is  neither  strong  nor 
happy,  it  is  because  we  are  not  admitting  the  love  of 
Christ,  and  are  striving  to  Hve  independently  of  Him 
who  is  our  Life.  Christ  is  the  perennial  fountain  of 
love,  of  hopefulness,  of  true  spiritual  life.  In  Him  there 
is  enough  to  purif}',  and  brighten,  and  sustain  all  human 
life.  Brought  into  contact  with  the  intellectualisrn  and 
the  vi^  of  Corinth,  the  love  of  Christ  proved  its  reality 
and  its  overcoming  strength ;  and  when  we  bring  it 
into  contact  with  ourselves,  burdened,  and  perplexed, 
and  tempted  as  we  are,  we  find  that  still  it  is  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation. 


THE  CHURCH  IN  CORINTH, 


"  Paul,  called  to  be  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  through  the  will 
of  God,  and  Sosthenes  our  brother,  unto  the  church  of  God  which  is 
at  Corinth,  to  them  that  are  sanctified  in  Christ  Jesus,  called  to  be 
saints,  with  all  that  in  every  place  call  upon  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  both  their's  and  our's :  Grace  be  unto  you,  and  peace,  from 
God  our  Father,  and  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  thank  my  God 
always  on  your  behalf,  for  the  grace  of  God  which  is  given  you  by 
Jesus  Christ ;  that  in  everything  ye  are  enriched  by  him,  in  all 
utterance,  and  in  all  knowledge :  even  as  the  testimony  of  Christ  was 
confirmed  in  you :  so  that  ye  come  behind  in  no  gift ;  waiting  for  the 
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  who  shall  also  confirm  you  unto 
the  end,  that  ye  may  be  blameless  in  the  day  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
God  is  faithful,  by  whom  ye  were  called  unto  the  fellowship  of  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." — i  Cor.  i.  2-9. 


11. 

THE  CHURCH  IN  CORINTH. 

IN  the  year  58  a.d.,  when  Paul  wrote  this  Epistle, 
Corinth  was  a  city  with  a  mixed  population,  and 
conspicuous  for  the  turbulence  and  immorality  commonly 
found  in  seaports  frequented  by  traders  and  seamen 
from  all  parts  of  the  world.  Paul  had  received  letters 
from  some  of  the  Christians  in  Corinth  which  disclosed 
a  state  of  matters  in  the  Church  far  from  desirable. 
He  had  also  more  particular  accounts  from  some  mem- 
bers of  Chioe's  household  who  were  visiting  Ephesus, 
and  who  told  him  how  sadly  disturbed  the  little  com- 
munity of  Christians  was  by  party  spirit  and  scandals 
in  life  and  worship. 

In  the  letter  itself  the  designation  of  the  writer  and 
of  those  addressed  first  claims  our  attention. 

The  writer  identifies  himself  as  ''  Paul,  an  Apostle 
of  Jesus  Christ  by  call,  through  the  will  of  God."  An 
Apostle  is  one  sent,  as  Christ  was  sent  by  the  Father. 
"As  the  Father  sent  Me,  even  so  send  I  you."  It  was 
therefore  an  office  no  one  could  take  to  himself,  nor 
was  it  the  promotion  resulting  from  previous  service. 
To  the  apostleship  the  sole  entrance  was  through  the 
call  of  Christ ;  and  in  virtue  of  this  call  Paul  became, 
as  he  says,  an  Apostle.  And  it  is  this  which  explains 
one  of  the  most  prominent  of  his  characteristics  :  the 

2 


l8      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

n/  singular  combination  of  humility  and  authority,  of 
self-depreciation  and  self-assertion.  He  is  filled  with 
a  sense  of  his  own  unwcrthiness  ;  he  is  'Mess  than  the 
least  of  the  Apostles,"  "not  worthy  to  be  called  an 
Apostle."  On  the  other  hand,  he  never  hesitates  to 
command  the  Churches,  to  rebuke  the  forjmost  man  in 
the  Church,  to  assert  his  claim  to  be  listened  to  as  the 
ambassador  of  Christ. 

This  extraordinary  humility  and  equally  remarkable 
boldness  and  authority  had  one  common  root  in  his 
perception  that  it  was  through  Christ's  call  and  by 
God's  will  he  was  an  Apostle.  The  work  of  going  to 
all  the  busiest  parts  of  the  world  and  proclaiming 
Christ  was  to  his  mind  far  too  great  a  work  for  him  to 
aspire  to  at  his  own  instance.  He  could  never  have 
aspired  to  such  a  position  as  this  gave  him.  But  God 
called  him  to  it ;  and,  with  this  authority  at  his  back, 
he  feared  nothing,  neither  hardship  nor  defeat. 

V  And  this  is  for  us  all  the  true  and  eternal  source  of 
humility  and  confidence.  Let  a  man  feel  sure  that  he 
is  called  of  God  to  do  what  he  is  doing,  let  him  be 
fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind  that  the  course  he 
follows  is  God's  will  for  him,  and  he  will  press  on 
undauntedly,  even  though  opposed.  It  is  altogether  a 
new  strength  with  which  a  man  is  inspired  when  he  is 
made  conscious  that  God  calls  him  to  do  this  or  that, 
when  behind  conscience  or  the  plain  requirements  of 
human  aflairs  and  circumstances  the  presence  of  the 
living  God  makes  itself  .  It.  Well  may  we  exclaim, 
with  one  who  had  to  stand  alone  and  follow  a  solitary 
path,  conscious  only  of  God's  approval,  and  sustained 
by  that  consciousness  against  the  disapproval  of  all, 
'*  Oh  that  V.  e  could  take  that  simple  view  of  things  as 
to  feel  that  the  one  thing  which   lies  before  us  is  to 


THE   CHURCH  IN  CORINTH.  19 


please  God  1  Wh?.t  gain  is  it  to  please  the  world,  to 
please  the  great,  nay  even  to  please  those  whom  we 
love,  compared  with  this  ?  What  gain  is  it  to  be  ap- 
plauded, admired,  courted,  followed,  compared  with 
this  one  aim  of  not  being  disobedient  to  a  heavenly 
vision  ?  " 

In  addressing  the  Church  at  Corinth,  Paul  unites 
with  himself  a  Christian  called  Sosthenes.  This  was 
the  name  of  the  chief  ruler  of  the  synagogue  at  Corinth 
who  was  beaten  by  the  Greeks  in  Gallio's  court,  and 
it  is  not  impossible  that  it  was  he  who  was  now  with 
Paul  in  Ephesus.  If  so,  this  would  account  for  his 
being  associated  with  Paul  in  writing  to  Corinth.  What 
share  in  the  letter  Sosthenes  actually  had  it  is  impossible 
to  say.  He  may  have  written  it  to  Paul's  dictation  ; 
he  may  have  suggested  here  and  there  a  point  to  be 
touched  upon.  Certainly  Paul's  easy  assumption  of  a 
friend  as  joint  writer  of  the  letter  sufficiently  shows 
that  he  had  no  such  stiff  and  formal  idea  of  inspiration 
as  we  have.  Apparently  he  did  not  stay  to  inquire 
whether  Sosthenes  was  qualified  to  be  the  author  of  a 
canonical  book ;  but  knowing  the  authoritative  position 
he  had  held  among  the  Jews  of  Corinth,  he  naturally 
conjoins  his  name  with  his  own  in  addressing  the  new 
Christian  community. 

Ihe  persons  to  whom  this  letter  is  addressed  are 
identified  as  "  the  Church  of  God  which  is  at  Corinth." 
With  them  are  joined  in  character,  if  not  as  recipients 
of  this  letter,  ''  all  that  in  every  place  call  upon  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  And  therefore  we 
should  perhaps  not  be  far  wrong  if  we  were  to  gather 
from  this  that  Paul  would  have  defined  the  Church  as 
the  company  of  all  those  persons  who  "  call  upon  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ."     Calling  upon  the  name  of  any 


20      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

one  implies  trust  in  him  ;  and  those  who  call  upon  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  are  those  who  look  up  to  Christ 
as  their  supreme  Lord,  able  to  supply  all  their  need. 
It  is  this  belief  in  one  Lord  which  brings  men  together 
as  a  Christian  Church. 

But  at  once  we  are  confronted  with  the  difficulty  that 
many  persons  who  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  do 
so  with  no  inward  conviction  of  their  need,  and  con- 
sequently with  no  real  dependence  upon  Christ  or 
allegiance  to  Him.  In  other  words,  the  apparent  Church 
is  not  the  real  Church.  Hence  the  distinction  between 
the  Church  visible,  which  consists  of  all  who  nominally 
or  outwardly  belong  to  the  Christian  community,  and 
the  Church  invisible,  which  consists  of  those  who  in- 
wardly and  really  are  the  subjects  and  people  of  Christ. 
Much  confusion  of  thought  is  avoided  by  keeping  in 
mind  this  obvious  distinction.  In  the  Epistles  of  Paul 
it  is  sometimes  the  ideal,  invisible  Church  which  is 
addressed  or  spoken  of;  sometimes  it  is  the  actual, 
visible  Church,  imperfect,  stained  with  unsightly  blots, 
calling  for  rebuke  and  correction.  Where  the  visible 
Church  is,  and  of  whom  composed,  we  can  always  say  ; 
its  members  can  be  counted,  its  property  estimated, 
its  history  written.  But  of  the  invisible  Church  no 
man  can  fully  write  the  history,  or  name  the  members, 
or  appraise  its  properties,  gifts,  and  services. 

From  the  earliest  times  it  has  been  customary  to  say 
that  the  true  Church  must  be  one,  holy,  catholic,  and 
apostolic.  That  is  true  if  the  Church  invisible  be 
meant.  The  true  body  of  Christ,  the  company  of 
persons  who  in  all  countries  and  ages  have  called  upon 
Christ  and  served  Him,  do  form  one,  holy,  catholic,  and 
apostolic  Church.  But  it  is  not  true  of  the  Church 
visible    and  disastrous  consequences  have  at  various 


i.  1-9.]  THE   CHURCH  IN  CORINTH.  21 

times  followed  the  attempt  to  ascertain  by  the  applica- 
tion of  these  notes  which  actual  visible  Church  has  the 
best'claim  to  be  considered  the  true  Church. 

Without  concerning  himself  explicitly  to  describe  the 
distinguishing  features  of  the  true  Church,  Paul  here 
gives  us  four  notes  which  must  always  be  found  ^: — 

1.  Consecration.  The  Church  is  composed  of  "  them 
that  have  been  sanctified  in  Christ  Jesus." 

2.  Holiness  :  ^'called  to  be  saints." 

3.  Universality  :  "  all  that  in  every  place  call  on  the 
name/*  etc. 

4.  Unity  :  "  both  their  Lord  and  ours." 

I.  The  true  Church  is,  first  of  all,  composed  of  con- 
secrated people.  The  word  '^  sanctify "  bears  here  a 
somewhat  different  meaning  from  that  which  we  com- 
monly attach  to  it.  It  means  rather  that  which  is  set 
apart  or  destined  to  holy  uses  than  that  which  has 
been  made  holy.  It  is  in  this  meaning  the  word  is 
used  by  our  Lord  when  He  says,  "  For  your  sakes  I 
sanctify  " — or  set  apart — "  Myself."  The  Church  by  its 
very  existence  is  a  body  of  men  and  women  set  apart 
for  a  holy  use.  The  New  Testament  word  for  Church, 
ecclesiay  means  a  society  "  called  out "  from  among 
other  men.  It  exists  not  for  common  purposes,  but  to 
witness  for  God  and  for  Christ,  to  maintain  before  the 
eyes  and  in  all  the  common  ways  and  works  of  men 
the  ideal  life  realized  in  Christ  and  the  presence  and 
holiness  of  God.  It  becomes  those  who  form  the 
Church  to  meet  God's  purpose  in  calling  them  out  of 
the  world  and  to  consider  themselves  as  devoted  and 
set  apart  to  attain  that  purpose.  Their  destination  is 
no  l.nger  that  of  the  world;  and  a  spirit  set  upon  the 

*  Com  p.  F.  W.  R-ber  son's  Lectures  on  Corinthians, 


22      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 


attainment  of  the  joys  and  advantages  the  world  gives 
is  wholly  out  of  place  in  them. 

2.  More  particularly  those  who  compose  the  Church 
are  called  to  be  "  saints."  Holiness  is  the  unmistakable 
characteristic  of  the  true  Church.  The  glory  of  God, 
inseparable  from  His  essence,  is  His  holiness,  His 
eternally  willing  and  doing  only  what  is  the  very  best. 
To  think  of  God  as  doing  wrong  is  blasphemy.  Were 
God  even  once  to  do  other  than  the  best  and  right,  the 
loving  and  just  thing,  He  would  cease  to  be  God. 
It  is  the  task  of  the  Church  to  exhibit  in  human  life  and 
character  this  holiness  of  God's.  Those  whom  God  calls 
into  His  Church,  He  calls  to  be,  above  all  else,  holy. 

The  Church  of  Corinth  was  in  some  danger  of 
forgetting  this.  One  of  its  members  in  particular  had 
been  guilty  of  a  scandalous  breach  even  of  the  heathen 
code  of  morals;  and  of  him  Paul  uncompromisingly 
says,  *^  Put  away  from  among  yourselves  that  wicked 
person."  Even  with  sinners  of  a  less  flagrant  sort, 
no  communion  was  to  be  held.  *^  If  any  man  that  is 
called  a  brother" — that  is,  claiming  to  be  a  Christian — 
"be  a  fornicator,  or  covetous,  or  an  idolater,  or  a  railer, 
or  a  drunkard,  or  an  extortioner,  with  such  a  one  you 
must  not  even  eat."  No  doubt  there  is  risk  and 
difficulty  in  administering  this  law.  The  graver  hidden 
sin  may  be  overlooked,  the  more  obvious  and  venial 
transgression  be  punished.  But  the  duty  of  the  Church 
to  maintain  its  sanctity  is  undeniable,  and  those  who 
act  for  the  Church  must  do  their  best  in  spite  of  all 
difficulty  and  risk. 

The  prime  duty,  however,  lies  with  the  members, 
not  with  the  rulers,  in  the  Church.  Those  whose 
function  it  is  to  watch  over  the  purity  of  the  Church 
would    be    saved   from    all    doubtful   action    were    the 


i.  1-9.]  THE    CHURCH  IN  CORINTH  23 

individual  members  alive  to  the  necessity  of  holy  living. 
This,  they  should  bear  in  mind,  is  the  very  object  of 
the  Church's  existence  and  of  their  being  in  it. 

3.  Thirdly,  it  is  ever  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
true  Church  of  Christ  is  to  be  found,  not  in  one  country 
nor  in  one  age,  not  in  this  or  that  Church,  whether  it 
assume  the  title  of  "  Catholic  "  or  pride  itself  on  being 
national,  but  is  composed  of  "  all  that  in  every  place 
call  upon  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Happily 
the  time  is  gone  by  when  with  any  show  of  reason 
any  one  Church  can  claim  to  be  catholic  on  the  ground 
of  its  being  coextensive  with  Christendom.  It  is  true 
that  Cardinal  Newman,  one  of  the  most  striking  figures 
and  probably  the  greatest  Churchman  of  our  own 
generation,  attached  himself  to  the  Church  of  Rome  on 
this  very  ground  :  that  it  possessed  this  note  of  catho- 
licity. To  his  eye,  accustomed  to  survey  the  fortunes 
and  growth  of  Christ's  Church  during  the  early  and 
mediaeval  centuries,  it  seemed  that  the  Church  of  Rome 
alone  had  any  reasonable  claim  to  be  considered  the 
Church  catholic.  But  he  was  betrayed,  as  others 
have  been,  by  confounding  the  Church  visible  with  the 
Church  invisible.  No  one  visible  Church  can  claim  to 
be  the  Church  catholic.  Catholicity  is  not  a  matter 
of  more  or  less  ;  it  cannot  be  determined  by  a  majority. 
No  Church  which  does  not  claim  to  contain  the  whole 
of  Christ's  people  without  exception  can  claim  to  be 
catholic.  Probably  there  are  some  who  accept  this 
alternative,  and  do  not  see  it  to  be  absurd  to  claim  for 
any  one  existing  Church  that  it  is  coextensive  with 
the  Church  of  Christ. 

4.  The  fourth  note  of  the  Church  here  irr, plied  is  its 
unity.  The  Lord  of  all  the  Churches  is  one  Lord  ;  in 
this  allegiance  they  centre,  and  by  it  are  held  together 


24      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

in  a  true  unity.  Plainly  this  note  can  belong  only  to 
the  Church  invisible,  and  not  to  that  multifarious 
collection  of  incoherent  fragments  known  as  the  visible 
Church.  It  is  indeed  doubtful  whether  a  visible  unity 
is  desirable.  Considering  what  human  nature  is  and 
l.ow  liable  men  are  to  be  overawed  and  imposed  upon 
by  what  is  large,  it  is  p .obably  quite  as  conducive  to 
the  spiritual  well-being  of  the  Church  that  she  is 
broken  up  into  parts.  Outward  divisions  into  national 
Churches  and  Churches  under  different  forms  of 
government  and  holding  various  creeds  would  sink 
into  insignificance,  and  be  no  more  bewailed  than  the 
division  of  an  army  into  regiments,  were  there  the 
real  unity  which  springs  from  true  allegiance  to  the 
common  Lord  and  zeal  for  the  common  cause  rather 
than  for  the  interests  of  our  own  particular  Church. 
When  the  generous  rivalry  exhibited  by  some  of  our 
regiments  in  battle  passes  into  envy,  unity  is  destroyed  ; 
and  indeed  the  attitude  sometimes  assumed  towards 
sister-Churches  is  rather  that  of  hostile  armies  than 
of  rival  regiments  striving  which  can  do  most  honour 
to  the  common  flag.  •  One  of  the  hopeful  signs  of  our 
times  is  that  this  is  generally  understood.  Christian 
people  are  beginning  to  see  how  much  more  important 
are  those  points  on  which  the  whole  Church  is  agreed 
than  those  often  obscure  or  trivial  points  which  split 
the  Church  into  sects.  Churches  are  beginning  to  own 
with  some  sincerity  that  there  are  Christian  gifts  and 
graces  in  all  Churches,  and  that  no  one  Church  com- 
prises all  the  excellences  of  Christendom.  And  the 
only  outward  unity  that  is  worth  having  is  that  which 
springs  from  inward  unity,  from  a  genuine  respect  and 
regard  for  all  who  own  the  same  Lord  and  spend  them- 
selves in  His  service. 


i.  1-9.]  THE    CHURCH  IN  CORINTH. 


25 


Paul,  with  his  usual  courtesy  and  instinctive  tact, 
introduces  what  he  has  to  say  with  a  hearty  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  distinctive  excellences  of  the  Corinthian 
Church  :  "I  thank  my  God  always  on  your  behalf,  for 
the  grace  of  God  which  is  given  you  in  Christ  Jesus, 
that  in  everything  ye  have  been  enriched  in  Him,  in 
all  utterance  and  in  all  knowledge,  even  as  the  testi- 
mony of  Christ  was  confirmed  in  you."  Paul  was  one 
of  those  large-natured  men  who  rejoice  more  in  the 
prosperity  of  others  than  in  any  private  good  fortune. 
The  envious  soul  is  glad  when  things  go  no  better 
with  others  than  with  himself,  but  the  generous  and 
unselfish  are  lifted  out  of  their  own  woes  by  their 
sympathy  with  the  happy.  Paul's  joy — and  it  was  no 
mean  or  shallow  joy — was  to  see  the  testimony  he  had 
borne  to  Christ's  goodness  and  power  confirmed  by 
the  new  energies  and  capacities  which  were  developed 
in  those  who  believed  his  testimony.  The  gifts  which 
the  Christians  in  Corinth  exhibited  made  it  manifest 
that  the  Divine  presence  and  power  proclaimed  by 
Paul  were  real.  His  testimony  regarding  the  risen 
but  unseen  Lord  v*^as  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  those 
who  believed  this  testimony  and  called  upon  the  name 
of  the  Lord  received  gifts  not  previously  enjoyed  by 
them.  Further  argument  regarding  the  actual  and 
present  power  of  the  unseen  Lord  was  needless  in 
Corinth.  And  in  our  day  it  is  the  new  life  of  believers 
which  most  strongly  confirms  the  testimony  regarding 
the  risen  Christ.  Every  one  who  attaches  himself  to 
the  Church  either  damages  or  aids  the  cause  of  Christ, 
propagates  either  belief  or  unbelief.  In  the  Corinthians 
Paul's  testimony  regarding  Christ  was  confirmed  by 
their  reception  of  the  rare  gifts  of  utterance  and  know- 
ledge.    It  is   indeed  somewhat  ominous   that   the    in- 


26      THE  FJKSr  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 


corruptible  honesty  of  Paul  can  only  acknowledge  their 
possession  of  "gifts,"  not  of  those  fine  Christian  graces 
which  distinguished  the  Thessalonians  and  others  of 
his  converts.  But  the  grace  of  God  must  always  adjust 
itself  to  the  nature  of  the  recipient ;  it  fulfils  itself  by 
means  of  the  material  which  nature  furnishes.  The 
Greek  nature  was  at  all  times  lacking  in  seriousness, 
and  had  attained  little  moral  robustness  ;  but  for  many 
centuries  it  had  been  trained  to  admire  and  excel  in 
intellectual  and  oratorical  displays.  The  natural  gifts  of 
the  Greek  race  were  quickened  and  directed  by  grace. 
Their  intellectual  inquisitiveness  and  apprehensiveness 
enabled  them  to  throw  light  on  the  grounds  and  results 
of  the  Christian  facts  ;  and  their  fluent  and  flexible 
speech  formed  a  new  wealth  and  a  more  worthy  em- 
ployment in  their  endeavours  to  formulate  Christian 
truth  and  exhibit  Christian  experience.  Each  race  has 
its  own  contribution  to  make  to  complete  and  full-grown 
Christian  manhood.  Each  race  has  its  own  gifts ;  and 
onl}'  when  grace  has  developed  all  these  gifts  in  a 
Christian  direction  can  we  actually  see  the  fitness  of 
Christianity  for  all  men  and  the  wealth  of  the  nature 
and  work  of  Christ,  which  can  appeal  to  and  best 
develop  all. 

Paul  thanked  God  for  their  gift  of  utterance.  Per- 
haps had  he  lived  now,  within  sound  of  an  utterance 
dizzying  and  ceaseless  as  the  roar  of  Niagara,  he  might 
hav^  had  a  word  to  say  in  praise  of  silence.  There  is 
more  than  a  risk  nowadays  that  talk  take  the  place  of 
thought  on  the  one  hand  and  of  action  on  the  other. 
But  it  could  not  fail  to  occur  to  Paul  that  this  Greek 
utterance,  with  the  instrument  it  had  in  the  Greek 
language,  was  a  great  gift  to  the  Church.  In  no  other 
language  could  he  have  found  such  adequate,  intelli- 


i.  1-9.]  THE   CHURCH  IN  CORINTH,  27 

gible,  and  beautiful  expression  for  the  new  ideas  to 
which  Christianity  gave  birth.  And  in  this  new  gift 
of  utterance  among  the  Corinthians  he  may  have  seen 
promise  of  a  rapid  and  effective  propagation  of  the 
Gospel.  For  indeed  there  are  few  more  valuable  gifts 
the  Church  can  receive  than  utterance.  Legitimately 
may  we  hope  for  the  Church  when  she  so  apprehends 
her  own  wealth  in  Christ  as  to  be  stirred  to  invite  all 
the  world  to  share  with  her,  when  through  all  her 
members  she  feels  the  pressure  of  thoughts  that  de- 
mand utterance,  or  when  there  arise  in  her  even  one 
or  tw^o  persons  with  the  rare  faculty  of  swaying  large 
audiences,  and  touching  the  common  human  heart,  and 
lodging  in  the  public  mind  some  germinant  ideas.  New 
epochs  in  the  Church's  life  are  made  by  the  men  who 
speak,  not  to  satisfy  the  expectation  cf  an  audience,  but 
because  they  are  driven  by  an  inward  compelling  force, 
not  because  they  are  called  upon  to  say  something,  but 
because  they  have  that  in  them  which  they  must  say. 

But  utterance  is  well  backed  by  knowledge.  Not 
alwa3'S  has  it  been  remembered  that  Paul  recognises 
knowledge  as  a  gift  of  God.  Often,  on  the  contrary,  has 
the  determination  to  satisfy  the  intellect  with  Christian 
truth  been  reprehended  as  idle  and  even  wicked.  To 
the  Corinthians  the  Christian  revelation  was  new,  and 
inquiring  minds,  could  not  but  endeavour  to  harmonize 
the  various  facts  it  conveyed.  This  attempt  to  under- 
stand Christianity  was  approved.  The  exercise  of  the 
human  reason  upon  Divine  things  was  encouraged. 
The  faith  which  accepted  testimony  was  a  gift  of  God, 
but  so  also  was  the  knowledge  which  sought  to  recom- 
mend the  contents  of  this  testimony  to  the  human  mind. 

But  however  rich  in  endowm.ents  the  Corinthians 
were,  they  could  net  but  ftel,  in  common  with  all  other 


28      THE  FJRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTH 'ANS. 


^  men,  that  no  endowment  can  lift  us  above  the  necessity 
of  conflict  with  sin  or  put  us  beyond  the  hazard  which 
that  conflict  entails.  In  point  of  fact,  richly  endowed 
men  are  often  most  exposed  to  temptation,  and  feel  more 
keenly  than  others  the  real  hazard  of  human  life. 
Paul  therefore  concludes  this  brief  introduction  by 
assigning  the  reason  of  his  assurance  that  they  will  be 
blameless  in  the  day  of  Christ ;  and  that  reason  is  that 

"^  God  is  in  the  matter  :  **  God  is  faithful,  by  whom  ye 
were  called  unto  the  fellowship  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord."  God  calls  us  with  a  purpose  in  view,  and 
is  faithful  to  that  purpose.  He  calls  us  to  the  fellow- 
ship of  Christ  that  we  may  learn  of  Him  and  become 
suitable  agents  to  carry  out  the  whole  will  of  Christ. 
To  fear  that,  notwithstanding  our  hearty  desire  to 
become  of  Christ's  mind  and  notwithstanding  all  our 
efforts  to  enter  more  deeply  into  His  fellowship,  we 
shall  yet  fail,  is  to  reflect  upon  God  as  either  insincere 
in  His  call  or  inconstant.  The  gifts  and  calling  of  God 
are  without  repentance.  They  are  not  revoked  on 
further  consideration.  God's  invitation  comes  to  us, 
and  is  not  withdrawn,  even  though  it  is  not  met  with 
the  hearty  acceptance  it  deserves.  All  our  obstinacy 
in  sin,  all  our  blindness  to  our  true  advantage,  all  our 
lack  of  anything  like  generous  self-devotion,  all  our 
frivolity,  and  folly,  and  worldliness,  are  understood 
>*  before  the  call  is  given.  By  calling  us  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  His  Son  God  guarantees  to  us  the  possibility 
of  our  entering  into  that  fellowship  and  of  becoming 
fit  for  it. 

Let  us  then  revive  our  hopes  and  renew  our  belief 
in  the  worth  of  life  by  remembering  that  we  are  called 
to  the  fellowship  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  satisfying ; 
all  else  that  calls  us  in  life  is  defective  and  incomplete. 


i.  1-9.]  THE    CHURCH  IN  CORINTH. 


29 


Without  this  fellowship  with  what  is  holy  and  eternal, 
all  we  find  in  life  seems  trivial  or  is  embittered  to  us 
by  the  fear  of  loss.  In  worldly  pursuits  there  is  excite- 
ment ;  but  when  the  fire  burns  out,  and  the  cold  ashes 
remain,  chill  and  blank  desolation  is  the  portion  of  the 
man  whose  all  has  been  the  world.  We  cannot  reason- 
ably and  deliberately  choose  the  world  ;  we  may  be 
carried  away  by  greed,  or  carnality,  or  earthliness  to 
seek  its  pleasures,  but  our  reason  and  our  better  nature 
cannot  approve  the  choice.  Still  less  does  our  reason 
approve  that  what  we  cannot  deliberately  choose  we 
should  yet  allow  ourselves  to  be  governed  by  and 
actually  join  in  fellowship  of  the  closest  kind.  Believe 
in  God's  call,  listen  to  it,  strive  to  maintain  yourself  in 
the  fellowship  of  Christ,  and  every  year  will  tell  you 
that  God,  who  has  called  you,  is  f  lithful  and  is  bringing 
you  nearer  and  nearer  to  what  is  stable,  happy,  and 
satisfying. 


THE  FACTIONS, 


"Now  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  ye  all  speak  the  same  thing,  and  that  there  be  no 
divisions  among  you  ;  but  that  j^e  be  perfectly  joined  together  in 
the  same  mind  and  in  the  same  judgment.  For  it  hath  been  declared 
unto  me  of  you,  my  brethren,  by  them  which  are  of  the  house  of 
Chloe,  that  there  are  contentions  among  you.  Now  this  I  say,  that 
every  one  of  you  saith,  I  am  of  Paul ;  and  I  of  Apollos ;  and  I  of 
Cephas ;  and  I  of  Christ.  Is  Christ  divided  ?  was  Paul  crucified 
for  you  ?  or  were  ye  baptized  in  the  name  of  Paul  ?  I  thank  God 
that  I  baptized  none  of  you,  but  Crispus  and  Gaius;  lest  any  should 
say  that  I  had  baptized  in  mine  own  name.  And  I  baptized  also 
the  household  of  Stephanas :  besides,  I  know  not  whether  I  baptized 
any  other." — I  Cor.  i.  10-16. 


,A 


III. 

THE    FACTIONS. 

THE  first  section  of  this  Epistle,  extending  from  the 
tenth  verse  of  the  first  chapter  to  the  end  of  the 
fourth  chapter,  is  occupied  with  an  endeavour  to  quench 
the  factious  spirit  which  had  shown  itself  in  the 
Corinthian  Church.  Paul,  with  his  accustomed  frank- 
ness, tells  the  Corinthians  from  whom  he  had  received 
information  regarding  them.  Some  members  of  the 
household  of  Chloe  who  were  then  in  Ephesus  were 
his  informants.  Chloe  was  evidently  a  woman  well 
known  in  Corinth,  and  probably  was  resident  there, 
although  it  has  with  some  reason  been  remarked  that 
it  "  is  more  in  harmony  with  St.  Paul's  discretion  to 
suppose  that  she  was  an  Ephesian  known  to  the 
Corinthians,  whose  people  hai  been  in  Corinth  and 
returned  to  Ephesus."^  The  danger  of  this  factious 
spirit,  which  in  subsequent  ages  has  so  grievously 
weakened  the  Church  and  hindered  her  work,  seemed 
to  Paul  so  urgent  that  he  abruptly  adjured  them  to 
unity  of  sentiment  and  of  confession  by  that  name 
which  was  at  once  "  the  bond  of  union  and  the  most 
holy  name  by  which  they  could  be  entreated."  Before 
speaking  of  the  important  topics  he  wished  to  discuss, 
he  must  first  of  all  give  them  to  understand  that  he 

*  Evans. 


34      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

does  not  write  to  a  party,  but  seeks  to  win  the  ear  of 
a  whole  and  united  Church. 

The  parties  in  the  Corinthian  Church  had  not  as  yet 
outwardly  separated  from  one  another.  The  members 
were  known  as  belonging  to  this  or  that  party,  but 
they  worshipped  together  and  had  not  as  yet  renounced 
one  another's  communion.  They  differed  in  doctrine, 
but  their  faith  in  one  Lord  held  them  together. 

Of  these  parties  Paul  names  four.  There  were  first 
of  all  those  who  held  by  Paul  himself  and  the  aspect 
of  the  Gospel  he  had  presented.  They  owed  to  him 
their  own  salvation ;  and  having  experienced  the  efficacy 
of  his  gospel,  they  could  not  believe  that  there  was  any 
other  efficacious  mode  of  presenting  Christ  to  men. 
And  gradually  they  became  more  concerned  to  uphold 
Paul's  authority  than  to  help  the  cause  of  Christ. 
They  probably  fell  into  the  mistake  to  which  all  mere 
partisans  are  liable,  and  became  more  Pauline  than 
Paul  himself,  magnifying  his  peculiarities  and  attaching 
importance  to  casual  sayings  and  private  practices  ot 
his  which  were  in  themselves  indifferent.  There  was 
apparently  some  danger  that  they  might  become  more 
Pauline  than  Christian,  should  allow  their  indebtedness 
to  Paul  to  obscure  their  debt  to  Christ,  and  should  so 
pride  themselves  in  the  teacher  as  to  neglect  the  thing 
taught. 

There  was  a  second  party,  grouped  round  ApoUos. 
This  kained  and  eloquent  Alexandrian  had  come  to 
Corinth  after  Paul  left,  and  what  Paul  had  planted 
he  so  successfully  watered  that  niany  seemed  to  owe 
everything  to  him.  Until  he  came  and  fitted  the 
Gospel  into  their  previous  knowledge,  and  showed 
them  Its  relations  to  other  faiths,  and  opened  up  to 
them  its  ethical  wealth  and  bearing  on  life,  they  had 


i.  10-16.]  THE  FACTIONS.  35 

been  unable  to  make  full  use  of  Paul's  teaching.  He 
had  sown  the  seed  in  their  minds  ;  they  had  owned  the 
truth  of  his  statements  and  accepted  them  ;  but  until 
they  heard  ApoUos  they  could  not  lay  hold  on  the 
truth  with  sufficient  definiteness,  and  could  not  boldly 
act  upon  it.  The  teaching  of  Apollos  was  not  opposed 
to  Paul's,  but  supplementary  of  it.  At  the  end  of  this 
letter  Paul  tells  the  Corinthians  that  he  had  asked 
Apollos  to  revisit  them,  but  Apollos  had  refused,  and 
refused  very  probably  because  he  was  aware  that  a 
party  had  been  formed  in  his  name,  and  that  his 
presence  in  Corinth  would  only  foster  and  increase  it. 
It  is  obvious  therefore  that  there  was  no  jealousy 
betw^een  Paul  and  Apollos  themselves,  whatever  rivalry 
might  exist  among  their  followers. 

The  third  party  gloried  in  the  name  of  Cephas ;  that 
is,  Peter,  the  Apostle  of  the  circumcision.  It  is  possible 
that  Peter  had  been  in  Corinth,  but  it  is  not  necessary 
to  suppose  so.  His  name  was  used  in  opposition  to 
Paul's  as  representing  the  original  group  of  Apostles 
who  had  companied  with  the  Lord  in  His  lifetime, 
and  who  adhered  to  the  observance  of  the  Jewish  law. 
How  far  the  party  of  Cephas  in  Corinth  indulged  in 
disparagement  of  Paul's  authority  we  cannot  exactly 
say.  There  are  indications,  however,  in  the  Epistle 
that  they  cited  against  him  even  his  self-denial,  arguing 
that  he  did  not  dare  either  to  ask  the  Church  to 
maintain  him  or  to  marry,  as  Peter  had  done,  because 
he  felt  that  his  claim  to  be  an  Apostle  was  insecure. 
It  may  be  imagined  how  painful  it  must  have  been  for 
a  high-minded  man  like  Paul  to  be  compelled  to  defend 
himself  against  such  accusations,  and  with  what  mingled 
indignation  and  shame  he  must  have  written  the  words, 
*'  Have  we  not  power  to  lead  about  a  sister,  a  wife,  as 


36      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

well  as  other  Apostles,  and  as  the  brethren  of  the  Lord 
and  Cephas  ?  Or  I  only  and  Barnabas,  have  not  we 
power  to  forbear  working?"  This  party  then  had  in 
it  more  dangerous  elements  than  the  party  of  ApoUos. 
Extreme  Judaizers  would  find  among  its  members  a 
soil  prepared  for  their  apparently  conservative  and 
orthodox  but  really  obstructive  and  pernicious  teaching. 

Of  the  fourth  party,  which  named  itself  *'  of  Christ," 
we  learn  more  in  the  Second  Epistle  than  in  the  First. 
From  a  striking  and  powerful  outburst  in  that  Epistle 
(2  Cor.  X.  7 — xii.  1 8),  it  would  appear  that  the  Christ 
party  was  formed  and  led  by  men  who  prided  them^- 
selves  on  their  Hebrew  descent  (xi.  22),  and  on  having 
learned  their  Christianity,  not  from  Paul,  Apollos,  or 
Cephas,  but  from  Christ  Himself  (i  Cor.  i.  12  ; 
2  Cor.  X.  7).  These  men  came  to  Corinth  with  letters 
of  commendation  (2  Cor.  iii.  i),  probably  from  Palestine, 
as  they  had  known  Jesus,  but  not  from  the  Apostles 
in  Jerusalem,  for  they  separated  themselves  from  the 
Petrine  party  in  Corinth.  They  claimed  to  be  apostles 
of  Christ  (2  Cor.  xi.  13)  and  "ministers  of  righteous- 
ness" (xi.  15);  but  as  they  taught  "another  Jesus," 
"another  spirit,"  "another  gospel"  (xi.  4),  Paul  does 
not  hesitate  to  denounce  them  as  false  apostles  and 
ironically  to  hold  them  up  as  "  out-and-out  apostles." 
As  yet,  however,  at  the  date  of  the  First  Epistle,  they 
had  either  not  so  plainly  shown  their  true  colours, 
or  Paul  was  not  aware  of  all  the  evil  they  were 
doing. 

The  Apostle  hears  of  these  four  parties  with  dismay. 
What  then  would  he  think  of  the  state  of  the  Church 
now  ?  There  was  as  yet  in  Corinth  no  schism,  no 
secession,  no  outward  disruption  of  the  Church  ;  and 
indeed  Paul  decs  not  rcem  to  contemplate  as  possible 


i.  10-16.]  THE  FACTIONS.  37 

that  which  in  our  day  is  the  normal  condition  :  a  Church 
broken  up  into  Httle  sections,  each  of  which  worships 
by  itself,  and  looks  upon  the  rest  with  some  distrust 
or  contempt.  It  did  not  as  yet  appear  possible  that 
the  members  of  the  one  body  of  Christ  should  refuse 
to  worship  their  common  Lord  in  fellowship  with  one 
another  and  in  one  place.  The  evils  attaching  to  such 
a  condition  of  things  may  no  doubt  be  unduly  magnified ; 
but  we  are  probably  more  inclined  to  overlook  than  to 
magnify  the  mischief  done  by  disunion  in  the  Church. 
The  Church  was  intended  to  be  the  grand  uniter  of 
the  race.  Within  its  pale  all  kinds  of  men  were  to 
be  gathered.  Distinctions  were  to  be  obliterated ;  dif- 
ferences were  to  be  forgotten ;  the  deepest  thoughts 
and  interests  of  all  men  were  to  be  recognised  as 
common  ;  there  was  to  be  neither  Jew  nor  Gentile, 
Greek  nor  barbarian,  bond  nor  free.  But  instead 
of  uniting  men  otherwise  alienated,  the  Church  has 
alienated  neighbours  and  friends;  and  men  who  will 
do  business  together,  who  will  dine  together,  will  not 
worship  together.  Thus  the  Church  has  lost  a  large 
part  of  her  strength.  Had  the  kingdom  of  Christ  been 
visibly  one,  it  would  have  been  supreme  and  without 
a  rival  in  the  world.  Had  there  been  union  where 
there  has  been  division,  the  rule  and  influence  of  Christ 
would  have  so  far  surpassed  every  other  influence  that 
peace  and  truth,  right  and  justice,  godHness  and  mercy, 
would  have  everywhere  reigned.  But  instead  of  this 
the  strength  of  the  Church  has  been  frittered  away  in 
civil  strife  and  party  warfare,  her  ablest  men  have 
spent  themselves  in  controversy,  and  through  division 
her  influence  has  become  insignificant.  The  world 
looks  on  and  laughs  while  it  sees  the  Church  divided 
against    itself    and    wrangling    over   petty    differences 


38      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

while  it  ought  to  be  assailing  vice,  ungodliness,  and 
ignorance.  And  yet  schi?m  is  thought  no  sin  ;  and 
that  which  the  Reformers  sliuddered  at  and  shrank 
from,  that  secession  which  they  feared  to  make  even 
from  a  Church  so  corrupt  as  that  of  Rome  then  was, 
every  petty  ecclesiastic  now  presumes  to  initiate. 

Now  that  the  Church  is  broken  into  pieces,  perhaps 
the  first  step  towards  a  restoration  of  true  unity  is  to 
recognise  that  there  may  be  real  union  without  unity  of 
external  organization.  In  other  w^ords,  it  is  quite  pos- 
sible that  Churches  which  have  individually  a  separate 
corporate  existence — say  the  Presbyterian,  Indepen- 
dent, and  Episcopalian  Churches — may  be  one  in  the 
New  Testament  sense.  The  human  race  is  one ;  but  this 
unity  admits  of  numberless  varieties  and  diversities  in 
appearance,  in  colour,  in  language,  and  of  endless  subor- 
dinate divisions  into  races,  tribes,  and  nations.  So  the 
Church  may  be  truly  one,  one  in  the  sense  intended  by 
our  Lord,  one  in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  and  the  bond  of 
peace,  though  there  continue  to  be  various  divisions  and 
sects.  It  may  very  well  be  argued  that,  constituted  as 
human  nature  is,  the  Church,  like  every  other  society 
or  institution,  will  be  the  better  of  a  competing,  if  not 
an  opposing,  rival  ;  that  schism,  divisions,  sects,  are 
necessary  evils ;  that  truth  will  be  more  thoroughly 
investigated,  discipline  more  diligently  and  justly 
maintained,  useful  activities  more  vigorously  engaged 
in,  if  there  be  rival  Churches  than  if  there  be  one. 
And  it  is  certainly  true  that,  so  far  as  man  can  foresee, 
there  is  no  possibiHty,  not  to  say  prospect,  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  becoming  one  vast  visible  organiza- 
tion. Oneness  in  that  sense  is  prevented  by  the  very 
same  obstacles  that  hinder  all  States  and  governments 
on  earth  from  being  merged  into  one  great  kingdom. 


i.  10-16.]  THE  FACTIONS.  39 

But  as  amidst  all  diversities  of  government  and 
customs  it  is  the  duty  of  States  to  remember  and 
maintain  their  common  brotherhood  and  abstain  from 
tyranny,  oppression,  and  war,  so  it  is  the  duty  of 
Churches,  however  separate  in  creed  or  form  of 
government,  to  maintain  and  exhibit  their  unity.  If 
the  sects  of  the  Church  will  frankly  and  cordially 
recognise  one  another  as  parts  of  the  same  whole,  if 
they  will  exhibit  their  relationship  b}^  combining  in 
good  works,  by  an  interchange  of  ecclesiastical  civilities, 
by  aiding  one  another  when  aid  is  needed,  this  is,  I 
conceive,  real  union.  Certainly  Churches  v.'hich  see  it 
to  be  their  duty  to  maintain  a  separate  existence  ought 
to  be  equally  careful  to  maintain  a  real  unity  with  all 
other  Churches. 

Again,  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  may  be 
real  union  without  unity  in  creed.  As  Churches 
may  be  truly  one  though,  for  the  sake  of  convenience 
or  of  some  conscientious  scruple,  they  maintain  a 
separate  existence,  so  the  unity  required  in  the  New 
Testament  is  not  uniformity  of  belief  in  respect  to  all 
articles  of  faith.  This  uniformity  is  desirable  ;  it  is 
desirable  that  all  men  knov/  the  truth.  Paul  here  and 
elsewhere  entreats  his  readers  to  endeavour  to  agree 
and  be  of  one  mind.  It  is  quite  true  that  the  Church 
has  gained  much  by  difference  of  opinion.  It  is  true 
that  were  all  men  to  be  agreed  there  might  be  a  danger 
of  truth  becoming  lifeless  and  forgotten  for  want  of 
tp.e  stimulus  it  derives  from  assault,  and  discussion, 
and  cross-questioning.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  fact  that 
doctrine  has  been  ascertained  and  developed  precisely 
in  proportion  and  in  answer  to  the  errors  and  mistakes 
of  heretics ;  and  were  all  assault  and  opposition  even 
now  to  cease,  there  might  be  some  danger  of  a  lifeless 


40      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

treatment  of  truth  ensuing.  And  yet  no  one  can 
desire  that  men  be  in  error  ;  no  one  can  wish  heresies 
to  multiply  that  the  Church  may  be  stimulated.  A 
visitation  of  cholera  may  result  in  cleanliness  and 
carefulness,  but  no  one  desires  that  cholera  may  come. 
Opposition  in  Parliament  is  an  acknowledged  service  to 
the  country,  yet  each  party  desires  that  its  sentiments 
become  universal.  So,  too,  notwithstanding  every  good 
result  which  may  flow  from  diversity  of  opinion  regard- 
ing Divine  truth,  agreement  and  unanimity  are  what  all 
should  aim  at.  We  may  even  see  reason  to  believe 
that  men  will  never  all  think  alike  ;  we  may  think  that 
it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things  that  men  of  diverse 
natural  disposition,  diverse  experience  and  upbringing, 
should  think  the  same  thing;  if  it  is  true,  as  a  great 
thinker  has  said,  that  "our  system  -of  thought  is  very 
often  only  the  history  of  our  heart,"  then  the  effort  to 
bring  men  to  precise  uniformit}^  of  thought  is  hopeless  : 
and  yet  this  effort  must  be  made.  No  man  who 
believes  he  has  found  the  truth  can  forbear  disseminat- 
ing it  to  the  utmost  of  his  abiUty.  If  his  favourite 
views  are  opposed  in  conversation,  he  does  what  he 
can  to  convince  and  make  converts  of  his  antagonists. 
There  is  truth,  there  is  a  right  and  a  wrong,  and  it  is 
not  all  the  same  whether  we  know  the  truth  or  are 
in  error ;  and  doctrine  is  simply  truth  expressed  :  and 
though  the  whole  truth  may  not  be  expressed,  yet  even 
this  partial  expression  of  it  may  be  much  safer  and 
nearer  what  we  ought  to  believe  than  some  current 
denial  of  the  truth.  Paul  wishes  people  to  believe 
certain  things,  not  as  if  then  they  would  be  fully 
enlightened,  but  because  so  far  they  will  be  enhghtened 
and  so  far  defended  against  error. 

But  the  question  remains,  What  truths  are  to  be  made 


i.  10-16.]  THE  FACTIONS. 


terms  of  communion  ?  Is  schism  or  secession  ever 
justifiable  on  the  ground  that  error  is  taught  in  the 
Church  ? 

This  is  a  question  most  difficult  to  answer.  The 
Church  of  Christ  is  formed  of  those  who  are  trusting  to 
Him  as  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.  He  is  in 
communion  with  all  who  thus  trust  Him,  whether 
their  knowledge  be  great  or  small ;  and  we  cannot 
refuse  to  communicate  with  those  with  whom  He  is  in 
communion.  And  it  may  very  reasonably  be  ques- 
tioned whether  any  part  of  the  Church  has  a  right  to 
identify  herself  with  a  creed  which  past  experience 
proves  that  the  whole  Church  will  never  adopt,  and 
vv^hich  therefore  necessarily  makes  her  schismatic  and 
sectarian.  As  manifestoes  or  didactic  summaries  of 
truth,  confessions  of  faith  may  be  very  useful. 
Systematic  knowledge  is  at  all  times  desirable ;  and  as 
a  backbone  to  which  all  the  knov\  ledge  we  acquire  may 
be  attached  a  catechism  or  confession  of  faith  is  part 
of  the  necessary  equipment  of  a  Church.  But  no 
doctrinal  error  which  does  not  subvert  personal  faith 
in  Christ  should  be  allowed  to  separate  Churches. 
Theology  must  not  be  made  more  of  than  Chris- 
tianity. We  cannot  pay  too  much  attention  to 
doctrine  or  too  earnestly  contend  for  the  faith ;  we 
cannot  too  anxiously  seek  to  have  and  to  disseminate 
clear  views  of  truth  :  but  if  we  make  our  clear  views  a 
reason  for  quarrelling  with  other  Christians  and  a  bar  to 
our  fellowship  with  them,  we  forget  that  Christ  is  more 
than  doctrine  and  charity  better  than  knowledge. 

Paul  certainly  was  contemplating  Christ,  and  not  a 
creed,  as  the  principle  and  centre  of  the  Church's  unity, 
when  he  exclaimed,  "  Is  Christ  divided  ?  "  The  indi- 
visible unity  of  Christ  Himself  is  in  Paul's  mind  the 


42      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

sufficient  argument  for  the  unity  of  the  Church.  If 
you  can  divide  the  one  Christ,  and  if  one  Church  can 
live  on  one  part,  another  on  another,  then  you  may 
have  several  Churches ;  but  if  there  be  one  Christ  in- 
divisible, then  is  there  but  one  Church  indi  ;i:  ible.  In 
all  Christians  and  in  all  Churches  the  one  Christ  is  the 
life  of  each.  And  it  is  monstrous  that  those  who  are 
vitally  united  to  one  Person  and  quickened  by  one  Spirit 
should  in  no  way  recognise  their  unity. 

It  is  with  something  akin  to  horror  that  Paul  goes 
on  to  ask,  "  Was  Paul  crucified  for  you  ?  "  He  implies 
that  only  on  the  death  of  Christ  can  the  Church  be 
founded.  If  those  who  prided  themselves  on  being 
followers  of  Paul  were  in  danger  of  exalting  him  into 
the  place  of  Christ,  they  were  forfeiting  their  salvation, 
and  had  no  right  to  be  in  the  Church  at  all.  Take 
away  the  death  of  Christ  and  the  personal  connection 
of  the  believer  with  the  crucified  Redeemer,  and  you 
take  away  the  Church. 

From  this  casual  expression  of  Paul  we  see  his 
habitual  attitude  towards  Christ ;  and  more  distinctly 
than  from  any  laboured  exposition  do  we  gather  that 
in  his  mind  the  pre-eminence  of  Christ  was  unique, 
and  that  this  pre-eminence  was  based  upon  His  cruci- 
fixion. Paul  understood,  and  was  never  slow  to  affirm, 
the  indebtedness  of  the  young  Christian  Churches  to 
himself:  he  was  their  father,  and  without  him  they 
would  not  have  existed.  But  he  was  not  their  saviour, 
the  foundation  on  which  they  were  built.  Not  for  one 
moment  did  he  suppose  that  he  could  occupy  towards 
men  the  position  Christ  occupied.  That  position  was 
unique,  altogether  distinct  from  the  position  he  occupied. 
No  one  could  share  with  Christ  in  being  the  Head  of 
the  Church  and  the  Saviour  of  the  body.     Paul  did  not 


i.  lo-iv.]  THE  FACTIONS.  43 

think  of  Christ  as  of  one  among  many,  as  of  the  best 
among  many  who  had  done  well.  He  did  not  think 
of  Him  as  the  best  among  renowned  and  useful  teachers, 
as  one  who  had  added  to  what  previous  teachers  had 
been  building.  He  thought  of  His  work  as  so  tran- 
scending and  distinct  from  the  work  of  other  men  that 
it  was  with  a  kind  of  horror  he  saw  that  there  was 
even  a  possibility  of  some  confounding  his  own  apostolic 
work  with  the  work  of  Christ.  He  fervently  thanks 
God  that  he  had  not  even  baptized  many  persons  at 
Corinth,  lest  it  should  be  supposed  he  had  baptized 
them  into  his  own  name,  and  so  implied,  as  baptism 
implies,  that  men  were  to  acknowledge  him  as  their 
leader  and  head.  Had  the  chief  part  of  Christ's  work 
been  its  lesson  in  self-sacrifice,  might  not  Paul's  life 
have  very  well  rivalled  it,  and  might  not  those  who 
had  themselves  seen  the  hfe  of  Paul  and  felt  the  power 
of  his  goodness  have  been  forgiven  if  they  felt  more 
indebted  to  him  than  to  the  more  remote  Jesus  ? 

The  ever-recurring  disposition  then  to  reduce  the 
work  of  Christ  to  the  level  of  comparison  with  the 
work  done  for  the  race  by  other  men  must  take  account 
of  this  expression  which  reveals  to  us  Paul's  thought 
about  it.  Certainly  Paul  understands  that  between  his 
work  and  the  work  of  Christ  an  impassable  gulf  is 
fixed.  Paul  was  wholly  devoted  to  his  fellow-men,  had 
suffered  and  was  prepared  again  to  suffer  any  hardships 
and  outrage  in  their  cause,  but  it  seemed  to  him  mon- 
strous that  any  person  should  confound  the  influence 
of  his  work  with  that  of  Christ's.  And  that  which 
gave  Christ  this  special  place  and  claim  was  His  cruci- 
fixion. We  miss  what  Paul  found  in  the  work  of 
Christ  so  long  as  we  look  more  to  His  life  than  to  His 
death,     Paul  does  not  say,  Was  Paul  your  teacher  in 


44      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

religion,  and  did  he  lead  your  thoughts  to  God  ?  did 
Paul  by  his  life  show  you  the  beauty  of  self-sacrifice 
and  holiness  ?  but  "  Was  Paul  crucified  for  you  ?  "  It 
was  Christ's  death  for  His  people  which  gave  Him  the 
unique  claim  on  their  allegiance  and  devotedness.  The 
Church  is  founded  on  the  Cross. 

It  was  not,  however,  the  mere  fact  of  His  dying  which 
gave  Christ  this  place,  and  which  claims  the  regard  and 
trust  of  all  men.  Paul  had  really  given  his  life  for 
men ;  he  had  been  more  than  once  taken  up  for  dead, 
having  by  the  truth  he  taught  provoked  the  hatred  of 
the  Jews,  even  as  Jesus  had  done.  But  even  this  did 
not  bring  him  into  rivalry  .with  the  unapproachable 
Redeemer.  Paul  knew  that  in  Christ's  death  there  was 
a  significance  his  own  could  never  have.  It  was  not 
only  human  self-sacrifice  that  was  there  manifested,  but 
Divine  self-sacrifice.  It  was  as  God's  Representative 
Christ  died  as  truly  as  Pie  died  as  man's  Representative. 
This  Paul  could  not  do.  In  Christ's  death  there  was 
what  there  could  be  in  none  other  :  a  sacrifice  for  the 
sins  of  men  and  an  atonement  for  these  sins.  Through 
this  death  sinners  find  a  way  back  to  God  and  assur- 
ance of  salvation.  There  was  a  work  accomplished  by 
it  which  the  purest  of  men  could  not  help  Him  in,  but 
must  himself  depend  upon  and  receive  the  benefit  of. 
Christ  by  His  death  is  marked  off"  from  all  men.  He 
being  the  Redeemer,  they  the  redeemed. 

This  exceptional,  unique  work  then — what  have  we 
made  of  it  ?  Paul,  probably  on  the  whole  the  most 
richly  endowed  man,  morally  and  intellectually,  the 
world  has  seen,  found  his  true  life  and  his  true  self  in 
the  work  of  this  other  Person.  It  was  in  Christ  Paul 
first  learned  how  great  a  thing  human  life  is,  and  it 
was  through  Christ  and  His  work  Paul  first  came  into 


i.  lo-iv.]  THE  FACTIONS. 


45 


fellowship  with  the  true  God.  This  greatest  of  men 
owed  everything  to  Christ,  and  was  so  inwardly  con- 
vinced of  this  that,  heart  and  soul,  he  yielded  himself  to 
Christ,  and  gloried  in  serving  Him.  How  is  it  with 
us  ?  Does  the  work  of  Christ  actually  yield  to  us 
those  grand  results  it  yielded  to  Paul  ?  Or  is  the 
greatest  reality  in  this  human  world  of  ours  wholly 
resultless  so  far  as  we  are  concerned  ?  It  filled  Paul's 
mind,  his  heart,  his  life  ;  it  left  him  nothing  else  to 
desire  :  this  man,  formed  on  the  noblest  and  largest 
type,  found  room  in  Christ  alone  for  the  fullest  deve- 
lopment and  exercise  of  his  powers.  Is  it  not  plain  that 
if  we  neglect  the  connection  with  Christ  which  Paul 
found  so  fruitful,  we  are  doing  ourselves  the  greatest 
injustice  and  preferring  a  narrow  prison-house  to  liberty 
and  life  ? 


THE   FOOLISHNESS   OF   PREACHING. 


"  For  Christ  sent  me  not  to  baptize,  but  to  preach  the  gospel :  not 
with  wisdom  of  words,  lest  the  cross  of  Christ  should  be  made  of 
none  effect.  For  the  preaching  of  the  cross  is  to  them  that  perish 
foolishness;  but  unto  us  which  are  saved  it  is  the  power  of  God. 
For  it  is  written,  I  will  destroy  the  wisdom  of  the  wise,  and  will 
bring  to  nothing  the  understanding  of  the  prudent.  Where  is  the 
wise  ?  where  is  the  scribe  ?  where  is  the  disputer  of  this  world  ? 
hath  not  God  made  foolish  the  wisdom  of  this  world  ?  For  after  that 
in  the  wisdom  of  God  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God,  it  pleased 
God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them  that  believe.  For 
the  Jews  require  a  sign,  and  the  Greeks  seek  after  wisdom  :  but 
we  preach  Christ  crucified,  unto  the  Jews  a  stumblingblock,  and 
unto  the  Greeks  foolishness ;  but  unto  them  which  are  called,  both 
Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of  God. 
Because  the  foolishness  of  God  is  wiser  than  men  ;  and  the  weakness 
of  God  is  stronger  than  men.  For  ye  see  your  calling,  brethren,  how 
that  not  many  wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many 
noble,  are  called :  but  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the 
world  to  confound  the  wise  ;  and  God  hath  chosen  the  weak  things 
of  the  world  to  confound  the  things  which  are  mighty ;  and  base 
things  of  the  world,  and  things  which  are  despised,  hath  God  chosen, 
yea,  and  things  which  are  not,  to  bring  to  nought  things  that  are  : 
that  no  flesh  should  glory  in  His  presence.  But  of  Him  are  ye 
in  Christ  Jesus,  who  of  God  is  made  unto  us  wisdom,  and  righteous- 
ness,, and  sanctification,  and  redemption:  that,  according  as  it  is 
written,  He  that  glorieth,  let  him  glory  in  the  Lord." 

"  And  I,  brethren,  when  I  came  to  you,  came  not  with  excellency 
of  speech  or  of  wisdom,  declaiing  unto  you  the  testimony  of  God. 
For  I  determined  not  to  know  any  thing  among  you,  save  Jesus 
Christ,  and  Him  crucified.  And  I  was  with  you  in  weakness,  and 
in  fear,  and  in  much  trembling.  And  my  speech  and  my  preaching 
was  not  with  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration 
of  the  spirit  and  of  power:  that  your  faith  should  not  stand  in  the 
wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God." — I  Cor.  i.  17-ii.  5. 


•IV. 

THE  FOOLISHNESS  OF  PREACHING. 

IN  the  preceding  section  of  this  Epistle  Paul  introduced 
the  subject  which  was  prominent  in  his  thoughts 
as    he   wrote  :   the    divided    state    of    the    Corinthian 
Church.     He  adjured  the  rival  parties  by  the  name  of 
Christ  to   hold    together,  to  discard  party  names  and 
combine    in  one  confession.     He  reminded  them    that 
Christ    is    indivisible,  and    that    the  Church   which    is 
founded  on  Christ  must  also  be  one.     He  shows  them 
how  impossible  it  is  for  any  one  but  Christ  to  be  the 
Church's  foundation,  and  thanks  God  that  he  had  given 
no  pretext  to  any  one  to  suppose  that  he  had  sought 
to  found  a  party.     Had  he  even  baptized  the  converts 
to  Christianity,  there  might  have  been  persons  foolish 
enough    to  whisper  that  he  had  baptized  in    his  own 
name    and    had    intended    to    found    a  Pauline,  not    a 
Christian,    community.       But    providentially     he    had 
baptized  very  few,  and  had  confined  himself  to  preaching 
the  Gospel,  which  he  considered  to  be  the  proper  work 
to  which  Christ  had  ^^ sent'''  him;  that    is  to  say,  for 
which  he  held  an  Apostle's  commission  and  authority. 
But  as  he  thus  repudiates  the  idea  that  he  had  given 
any  countenance  to  the  founding  of  a  Pauline  party, 
it  occurs  to  him   that  SDme  may  say.  Yes,  it    is  true 
enough,    he   did   not    baptize ;  but  his   preaching  may 

4 


so      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

more  effectually  have  won  partisans  than  even  baptizing 
them  into  his  own  name  could  have  done.  And  so 
Paul  goes  on  to  show  that  his  preaching  was  not  that  of 
a  demagogue  or  party-leader,  but  was  a  bare  statement 
of  fact,  garnished  and  set  off  by  absolutely  nothing 
which  could  divert  attention  from  the  fact  either  to  the 
speaker  or  to  his  style.  Hence  this  digression  on  the 
foolishness  of  preaching. 

In  this  section  of  the  Epistle  then  it  is  Paul's  purpose 
to  explain  to  the  Corinthians  (i)  the  style  of  preaching 
he  had  adopted  while  with  them  and  (2)  why  he  had 
-adopted  this  style. 

I.  His  time  in  Corinth,  he  assures  them,  had  been 
spent,  not  in  propagating  a  philosophy  or  system  of 
truth  peculiar  to  himself,  and  which  might  have  been 
identified  with  his  name,  but  in  presenting  the  Cross 
of  Christ  and  making  the  plainest  statements  of  fact 
regarding  Christ's  death.  In  approaching  the  Corin- 
thians, Paul  had  necessarily  weighed  in  his  own  mind 
the  comparative  merits  of  various  modes  of  pre- 
senting the  Gospel.  In  comirion  with  all  men  who 
are  about  to  address  an  audience,  he  took  into  con- 
sideration the  aptitudes,  peculiarities,  and  expectations 
of  his  audience,  that  he  might  so  frame  his  arguments, 
statements,  and  appeals  as  to  be  most  likely  to  carry 
his  point.  The  Corinthians,  as  Paul  well  knew,  were 
especially  open  to  the  attractions  of  rhetoric  and 
philosophical  discussion.  A  new  philosophy  clothed 
in  elegant  language  was  likely  to  secure  a  number  of 
disciples.  And  it  was  quite  in  Paul's  power  to  present 
the  Gospel  as  a  philosophy.  He  might  have  spoken 
to  the  Corinthians  in  large  and  impressive  language  of 
the  destiny  of  man,  of  the  unity  of  the  race,  and  of 
the  ideal  man  in  Christ.     He  might  have  based  all  he 


i.  i7-ii.S-]     THE  FOOLISHNESS   OF  PREACHING.  51 


had  to  teach  them  on  some  of  the  accepted  dicta  or 
theories  of  their  own  philosophers.  He  mJght  have 
propounded  some  new  arguments  for  immortality  or 
the  existence  of  a  personal  God,  and  have  shown  how 
congruous  the  Gospel  is  to  these  great  truths.  He 
might,  like  some  subsequent  teachers,  have  emphasized 
some  particular  aspect  of  Divine  truth,  and  have  so 
identified  his  teaching  with  this  one  side  of  Christianity 
as  to  found  a  school  or  sect  known  by  his  name. 
But  he  deliberately  rejected  this  method  of  introducing 
the  Gospel,  and  "determined  not  to  know  anything 
among  them  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified." 
He  stripped  his  mind  bare,  as  it  were,  of  all  his  know- 
ledge and  thinking,  and  came  among  them  as  an 
ignorant  m.an  who  had  only  facts  to  tell. 

Paul  then  in  this  instance  deliberately  trusted  to  the 
bare  statement  of  facts,  and  not  to  any  theory  about 
these  facts.  This  is  a  most  important  distinction,  and 
to  be  kept  in  view  by  all  preachers,  whether  they  feel 
called  by  their  circumstances  to  adopt  Paul's  method 
or  not.  In  preaching  to  audiences  with  whom  the 
facts  are  familiar,  it  is  perfectly  justifiable  to  draw 
inferences  from  them  and  to  theorize  about  them  for 
the  instruction  and  edification  of  Christian  people, 
Paul  himself  spoke  ^'wisdom  among  them  that  were 
perfect."  But  what  is  to  be  noted  is  that  for  doing  the 
work  proper  to  the  Gospel,  for  making  men  Christians, 
it  is  not  theory  or  explanation,  but  fact,  that  is  effective. 
It  is  the  presentation  of  Christ  as  He  is  presented  in 
the  written  Gospels,  the  narrative  of  His  life  and  death 
without  note  or  com.ment,  theory  or  inference,  argu- 
ment or  appeal,  which  stands  in  the  first  rank  of 
efficiency  as  a  means  of  evangelizing  the  world.  Paul, 
ever  moderate,  does  not    denounce  other   methods    of 


52      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

presenting  the  Gospel  as  illegitimate  ;  but  in  his  circum- 
stances the  bare  presentation  of  fact  seemed  the  only 
wise  method. 

No  doubt  we  may  unduly  press  Paul's  words ;  and 
probably  we  should  do  so  if  we  gathered  that  he 
merely  told  his  hearers  how  Christ  had  lived  and  died 
and  gave  them  no  inkling  of  the  significance  of  His 
death.  Still  the  least  we  can  gather  from  his  words  is 
that  he  trusted  more  to  facts  than  to  any  explanation 
of  the  facts,  more  to  narration  than  to  inference  and 
theory.  Certainly  the  neglect  of  this  distinction  renders 
a  great  proportion  of  modern  preaching  ineffective  and 
futile.  Preachers  occupy  their  time  in  explaining  how 
the  Cross  of  Christ  ought  to  influence  men,  whereas 
they  ought  to  occupy  their  time  in  so  presenting  the 
Cross  of  Christ  that  it  does  influence  men.  They  give 
laboured  explanations  of  faith  and  elaborate  instructions 
regarding  the  method  and  results  of  believing,  while 
they  should  be  exhibiting  Christ  so  that  faith  is 
instinctively  aroused.  The  actor  on  the  stage  does 
not  instruct  his  audience  how  they  should  be  affected 
by  the  play  ;  he  so  presents  to  them  this  or  that  scene 
that  they  instinctively  smile  or  find  their  eyes  fill. 
Those  onlookers  at  the  Crucifixion  who  beat  their  breasts 
and  returned  to  their  homes  with  awe  and  remorse 
were  not  told  that  they  should  feel  compunction ;  it  was 
enough  that  they  saw  the  Crucified.  So  it  is  always  ; 
it  is  the  direct  vision  of  the  Cross,  and  not  anything 
which  is  said  about  it,  which  is  most  effective  in  pro- 
ducing penitence  and  faith.  And  it  is  the  business  of 
the  preacher  to  set  Christ  and  Him  crucified  clear 
before  the  eyes  of  men  ;  this  being  done,  there  will 
be  little  need  of  explanations  of  faith  or  inculcation 
of  penitence.     Make  men  see  Christ,  set  the  Crucified 


i.  i7-ii.5]     THE  FOOLISHNESS   OF  PREACHING.  53 

clear  before  them,  and  you  need  not  tell  them  to  repent 
and  believe ;  if  that  sight  does  not  make  them  repent, 
no  telling  of  yours  will  make  them. 

The  very  fact  that  it  was  a  Person,  not  a  system  of 
philosophy,  that  Paul  proclaimed  was  sufficient  proof 
that  he  was  not  anxious  to  become  the  founder  of  a 
school  or  the  head  of  a  party.  It  was  to  another 
Person,  not  to  himself,  he  directed  the  attention  and 
faith  of  his  hearers.  And  that  which  permanently 
distinguishes  Christianity  from  all  philosophies  is 
that  it  presents  to  men,  not  a  system  of  truth  to  be 
understood,  but  a  Person  to  be  relied  upon.  Christianity 
is  not  the  bringing  of  new  truth  to  us  so  much  as  the 
bringing  of  a  new  Person  to  us.  The  manifestation 
of  God  in  Christ  is  in  harmony  with  all  truth ;  but 
we  are  not  required  to  perceive  and  understand  that 
harmony,  but  to  believe  in  Christ.  Christianity  is  for 
all  men,  and  not  for  the  select,  highly  educated  few ;  and 
it  depends  therefore,  not  on  exceptional  ability  to  see 
truth,  but  on  the  universal  human  emotions  of  love  and 
trust. 

II.  Paul  justifies  his  rejection  of  philosophy  or 
"  wisdom  "  and  his  adoption  of  the  simpler  but  more 
difficult  method  of  stating  fact  on  three  grounds.  The 
first  is  that  God's  method  had  changed.  For  a  time 
God  had  allowed  the  Greeks  to  seek  Him  by  their  own 
wisdom ;  now  He  presents  Himself  to  them  in  the 
foolishness  of  the  Cross  (vers.  17 — 25).  The  second 
ground  is  that  the  wise  do  not  universally  respond  to 
the  preaching  of  the  Cross,  a  fact  which  shows  that  it 
is  not  wisdom  that  preaching  appeals  to  (vers.  26 — 31). 
And  his  third  ground  is  that  he  feared  lest,  if  he  used 
"wisdom"  in  presenting  the  Gospel,  his  hearers  might 
be   only  superficially  attracted  by  his    persuasiveness 


54      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 


and  not  profoundly  moved  by  the  intrinsic  power  of  the 
Cress  (ii.  I — 5). 

I.  His  first  reason  is  that  God  had  changed  His 
method.  "  After  that  in  the  wisdom  of  God  the 
world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God,  it  pleased  God  by  the 
foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them  that  believe." 
Even  the  wisest  of  the  Greeks  had  attained  only  to 
inadequate  and  indefinite  views  of  God.  Admirable 
and  pathetic  are  the  searchings  of  the  noble  intellects 
that  stand  in  the  front  rank  of  Greek  philosophy ;  and 
some  of  their  discoveries  regarding  God  and  His  ways 
are  full  of  instruction.  But  these  thoughts,  cherished 
by  a  few  wise  and  devout  men,  never  penetrated  to  the 
people,  and  by  their  vagueness  and  uncertainty  were 
incapacitated  from  deeply  influencing  any  one.  To 
pass  even  from  Plato  to  the  Gospel  of  John  is  really  to 
pass  from  darkness  to  light.  Plato  philosophizes,  and 
a  few  souls  seem  for  a  moment  to  see  things  more 
clearly  ;  Peter  preaches,  and  three  thousand  souls  spring 
to  life.  If  God  was  to  be  known  by  men  generally, 
it  was  not  through  the  influence  of  philosophy.  Already 
philosophy  had  done  its  utmost ;  and  so  far  as  any 
popular  and  sanctifying  knowledge  of  God  went, 
philosophy  might  as  well  never  have  been.  "The 
world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God."  No  safer  assertion 
rcgaiding  the  ancient  world  can  be  made. 

That  which,  in  point  of  fact,  has  made  God  known 
is  the  Cross  of  Christ.  No  doubt  it  must  have  seemed 
foolishness  and  mere  lunacy  to  summon  the  seeker 
after  God  away  from  the  high  and  elevating  speculations 
of  Plato  on  the  good  and  the  eternal  and  to  point  him 
to  the  Crucified,  to  a  human  form  gibbeted  on  a 
malefactor's  cross,  to  a  man  that  had  been  hanged. 
None  knew  better  than  Paul  the  infamy  attaching  to 


i.  i7-ii.5.]     THE  FOOLISHNESS   OF  PREACHING.  55 

that    cursed    death,    and    none    could    more    distinctly 
measure  the  surprise  and  stupefaction  with  which  the 
Greek  mind  would  hear  the  announcement  that  it  was 
there  God  was  to  be  seen  and   known.     Paul  under- 
stood  the  offence  of  the  Cross,  but  he  knew  also  its 
power.     "  The  Jews  require  a  sign,    and  the   Greeks 
seek  after  wisdom ;  but  we  preach  Christ  crucified,  unto 
the   Jews    a    stumbling-block    and    unto    the    Greeks 
foolishness,    but    unto    them    which    are    called,    both 
Jews  and  Greeks,   Christ  the  power   of  God,  and  the 
wisdom  of  God." 
^       As    proof   that    God   was  in    their  midst   and  as  a 
revelation  of  God's  nature,  the  Jews  required  a  sign, 
a    demonstration    of  physical    p  .vver.     It    was   one  of 
Christ's    temptations    to  leap    from   a    pinnacle   of  the 
Temple,  for  thus  He  would  hive  won  acceptance  as  the 
Christ.     The    people    never    ceased   to    clamour  for  a 
sign.     They  wished  Him  to  bid  a  mountain  be  removed 
and  cast  into  the  sea  ;  they  wished  Him  to  bid  the  sun 
stand  still  or  Jordan  retire  to  its  source.     They  wished 
Him    to    make    some    demonstration    of   superhuman 
power,  and  so  put  it  beyond  a  doubt   that  God  was 
present.     Even  at  the  last  it  would  have  satisfied  them 
had  He  bid  the  nails  drop  out  and  had  He  stepped  down 
from  the  Cross  among  them.     They  could  not  under- 
stand that  to  remain  on  the  Cross  was  the  true  proof 
of  Divinity.     The  Cross  seem.ed  to  them  a  confession 
of  weakness.     They  sought   a  demonstration  that  the 
power  of  God  was  in  Christ,  and  they  were  pointed  to 
the  Cross.     But  to  them  the  Cross  was  a  stumbling- 
block  they  could  not  get  over.     And  yet  in  it  was  the 
vvhole  power  of  God    for  the  salvation   of  the  world. 
All  the  power  that  dwells  in  God  to  draw  men  out  of 
sin   to  hoUness   and  to   Himself  was  actually  in  the 


56      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CORINIHIANS. 


Cross.  For  the  power  of  God  that  is  required  to 
draw  men  to  Himself  is  not  power  to  alter  the  course 
of  rivers  or  change  the  site  of  mountains,  but  power 
to  sympathize,  to  make  men's  sorrows  His  own,  to 
sacrifice  self,  to  give  all  for  the  needs  of  His  creatures. 
To  them  that  believe  in  the  God  there  revealed,  the 
Cross  is  the  power  of  God.  It  is  this  love  of  God  that 
overpowers  them  and  makes  it  impossible  for  them  to 
resist  Him.  To  a  God  who  makes  Himself  known 
to  them  in  self-sacrifice  they  quickly  and  delightedly 
}'ield  themselves. 

2.  As  a  second  ground  on  which  to  rest  the  justifica- 
tion of  his  method  of  preaching  Paul  appeals  to  the 
constituent  elements  of  which  the  Church  of  Corinth 
was  actually  composed.  It  is  plain,  he  says,  that  it  is 
not  by  human  wisdom,  nor  by  power,  nor  by  anything 
generally  esteemed  among  men  that  you  hold  your 
place  in  the  Church.  The  fact  is  that  "  not  many  wise 
men  after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble, 
are  called."  If  human  wisdom  or  power  held  the  gates 
of  the  kingdom,  you  yourselves  would  not  be  in  it.  To 
be  esteemed,  and  influential,  and  wise  is  no  passport  to 
this  new  kingdom.  It  is  not  men  who  b}^  their  wisdom 
find  out  God  and  by  their  nobility  of  character  commend 
themselves  to  Him ;  but  it  is  God  who  chooses  and 
calls  men,  and  the  very  absence  of  wisdom  and  posses- 
sions makes  men  readier  to  listen  to  His  call.  *'  God 
hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  world  to  confound 
the  wise  ;  and  God  hath  chosen  the  weak  things  of  the 
world  to  confound  the  things  which  are  mighty,  and 
base  things  of  the  world,  and  things  which  are  despised, 
hath  God  chosen,  yea,  and  things  which  are  not,  to 
bring  to  nought  things  which  are  ;  that  no  flesh  should 
glory  in  His   presence."     It   is  all  God's  doing  now  ; 


i.  i7-ii.5.]     THE   FOOLISHNESS   OF  PREACHING.  57 

it  is  ''  Of  Him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus  ; "  it  is  God  that 
hath  chosen  you.  Human  wisdom  had  its  opportunity 
and  accompUshed  httle  ;  God  now  by  the  fooHshness  of 
the  Cross  hfts  the  despised,  the  fooHsh,  the  weak,  to  a 
far  higher  position  than  the  wise  and  noble  can  attain 
by  their  might  and  their  wisdom. 

Paul  thus  justifies  his  inelhod  by  its  results.  He 
uses  as  his  weapon  the  foolishness  of  the  Cross,  and 
this  foolishness  of  God  proves  itself  wiser  than  men. 
It  may  seem  a  most  unlikely  weapon  with  which  to 
accomplish  great  things,  but  it  is  God  who  uses  it, 
and  that  makes  the  difference.  Hence  the  emphasis 
throughout  this  passage  on  the  agency  of  God.  "  God 
hath  chosen  "  you  ;  "  Of  God  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  " 
"  Of  God  He  is  made  unto  you  wisdom."  This  method 
used  by  Paul  is  God's  method  and  means  of  working, 
and  therefore  it  succeeds.  But  for  this  reason  also  all 
ground  of  boasting  is  removed  from  those  who  are 
within  the  Christian  Church.  It  is  not  their  wisdom 
or  strength,  but  God's  work,  which  has  given  them 
superiority  to  the  wise  and  noble  of  the  world.  "  No 
flesh  can  glory  in  God's  presence."  The  wise  and 
mighty  of  earth  cannot  glory,  for  their  wisdom  and 
might  availed  nothing  to  bring  them  to  God  ;  those 
who  are  in  Christ  Jesus  can  as  little  glory,  for  it  is  not 
on  account  of  any  wisdom  or  might  of  theirs,  but 
because  of  God's  call  and  energy,  they  are  what  they 
are.  They  were  of  no  account,  poor,  insignificant, 
outcasts,  and  slaves,  friendless  while  alive  and  when 
dead  not  missed  in  any  household  ;  but  God  called  them 
and  gave  them  a  new  and  hopeful  life  in  Christ  Jesus. 

In  Paul's  day  this  argument  from  the  general  poverty 
and  insignificance  of  the  members  of  the  Christian 
Church  was  readily  drawn.     Things  are  changed  now ; 


58      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

and  the  Church  is  filled  with  the  wise,  the  powerful, 
the  noble.  But  Paul's  main  proposition  remains  :  who- 
ever is  in  Christ  Jesus  is  so,  not  through  any  wisdom 
or  power  of  his  own,  but  because  God  has  chosen  and 
called  him.  And  the  practical  result  remains.  Let  the 
Christian,  while  he  rejoices  in  his  position,  be  humble. 
There  is  something  wrong  with  the  man's  Christianity 
who  is  no  sooner  delivered  from  the  mire  himself  than 
he  despises  all  who  are  still  entangled.  The  self- 
righteous  attitude  assumed  by  some  Christians,  the 
*'  Look  at  me  "  air  they  carry  with  them,  their  unsym- 
pathetic condemnation  of  unbelievers,  the  superiority 
with  which  they  frown  upon  amusements  and  gaieties, 
all  seem  to  indicate  that  they  have  forgotten  it  is  by 
the  grace  of  God  they  are  what  they  are.  The  sweet- 
ness and  humble  friendliness  of  Paul  sprang  from  his 
constant  sense  that  whatever  he  was  he  was  by  God's 
grace.  He  was  drawn  with  compassion  towards  the 
most  unbelieving  because  he  v/as  ever  saying  within 
himself.  There,  but  for  the  grace  of  God,  goes  Paul. 
The  Christian  must  say  to  himself.  It  is  not  because  I 
am  better  or  wiser  than  other  men  that  I  am  a  Chris- 
tian ;  it  is  not  because  I  sought  God  with  earnestness, 
but  because  He  sought  me,  that  I  am  now  His.  The 
hard  suspicion  and  hostility  with  which  many  good 
people  view  unbelievers  and  godless  livers  would  thus 
be  softened  by  a  mixture  of  humble  self-knowledge. 
The  unbeliever  is  no  doubt  often  to  be  blamed,  the 
selfish  pleasure-seeker  undoubtedly  la^'s  himself  open 
to  just  condemnation,  but  not  by  the  man  who  is 
conscious  that  but  for  God's  grace  he  himself  would 
be  unbelieving  and  sinful. 

Lastly,    Paul   justifies    his    neglect    of  wisdom    and 
rhetoric    on    the    ground   that  had   he   used   "  enticing 


I.  I7-U.S]     THE  FOOLISHNESS   OF  PREACHING.  59 

words  of  man's  wisdom  "  the  hearers  might  have  been 
unduly  influenced  by  the  mere  guise  in  which  the 
Gospel  was  presented  and  too  little  influenced  by  the 
essence  of  it.  He  feared  to  adorn  the  simple  tale  or 
dress  up  the  bare  fact,  lest  the  attention  of  his  audience 
might  be  diverted  from  the  substance  of  his  message. 
He  was  resolved  that  their  faith  should  not  stand  in 
the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God  ;  that  is 
to  say,  that  those  who  believed  should  do  so,  not 
because  they  saw  in  Christianity  a  philosophy  which 
might  compete  with  current  systems,  but  because  in 
the  Cross  of  Christ  they  felt  the  whole  redeeming 
power  of  God  brought  to  bear  on  their  own  soul. 

Here  again  things  have  changed  since  Paul's  day. 
The  assailants  of  Christianity  have  put  it  on  its  defence, 
and  its  apologists  have  been  compelled  to  show  that  it 
is  in  harmony  with  the  soundest  philosophy.  It  was 
inevitable  that  this  should  be  done.  Every  philosophy 
now  has  to  take  account  of  Christianity.  It  has  shown 
itself  to  be  so  true  to  human  nature,  and  it  has  shed 
so  much  light  on  the  whole  system  of  things  and  so 
modified  the  action  of  men  and  the  course  of  civilization, 
that  a  place  must  be  found  for  it  in  every  philosophy. 
But  to  accept  Christianity  because  it  has  been  a  power- 
ful influence  for  good  in  the  world,  or  because  it 
harmonizes  with  the  most  approved  philosophy,  or 
because  it  is  friendly  to  the  highest  development  of 
intellect,  may  be  legitimate  indeed;  but  Paul  considered 
that  the  only  sound  and  trustworthy  faith  was  produced  ; 
by  direct  personal  contact  with  the  Cross.  And  this  j 
remains  for  ever  true. 

To  approve  of  Christianity  as  a  system  and  to  adopt 
it  as  a  faith  are  two  different  things.  It  is  quite 
possible  to  respect  Christianity  as  conveying  to  us  a 


6o      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

large  amount  of  useful  truth,  while  we  hold  ourselves 
aloof  from  the  influence  of  the  Cross.  We  may  approve 
the  morality  which  is  involved  in  the  religion  of  Christ, 
we  may  countenance  and  advocate  it  because  we  are 
persuaded  no  other  force  is  powerful  enough  to  diffuse 
a  love  of  law  and  some  power  of  self-restraint  among 
all  classes  of  society,  we  may  sec  quite  clearly  that 
Christianity  is  the  only  religion  an  educated  European 
can  accept,  and  yet  we  may  never  have  felt  the  power 
of  God  in  the  Cross  of  Christ.  If  we  believe  in 
Christianity  because  it  approves  itself  to  our  judgment 
as  the  best  solution  of  the  problems  of  life,  that  is  well ; 
but  still,  if  that  be  all  that  draws  us  to  Christ,  our 
faith  stands  in  the  wisdom  of  men  rather  than  in  the 
power  of  God. 

In  what  sense  then  are  we  Christians  ?  Have  we 
allowed  the  Cross  of  Christ  to  make  its  peculiar  impres- 
sion upon  us  ?  Have  we  given  it  a  chance  to  influence 
us  ?  Have  we  in  all  seriousness  of  spirit  considered 
what  is  presented  to  us  in  the  Cross  ?  Have  we 
honestly  laid  bare  our  hearts  to  the  love  of  Christ  ? 
Have  we  admitted  to  ourselves  that  it  was  for  us  He 
died  ?  If  so,  then  we  must  have  felt  the  power  of  God 
in  the  Cross.  We  must  have  found  ourselves  taken 
captive  by  this  love  of  God.  God's  law  we  may  have 
found  it  possible  to  resist ;  its  thrcatenings  we  may 
have  been  able  to  put  out  of  our  mind.  The  natural 
helps  to  goodness  which  God  has  given  us  in  the 
family,  in  the  world  around  us,  in  the  fortunes  of  life, 
we  may  have  found  too  feeble  to  lift  us  above  tempta- 
tion and  bring  us  into  a  really  high  and  pure  life.  But 
in  the  Cross  we  at  length  experience  what  Divine  power 
is  ;  we  knovv^  the  irresistible  appeal  of  Divine  self-sacri- 
fice, the  overcoming,  regenerating  pathos  of  the  Divine 


[7-ii.  5-]     THE  FOOLISHNESS   OF  PREACHING. 


t)i 


desire  to  save  us  from  sin  and  destruction,  the 
upholding  and  quickening  energy  that  flows  into  our 
being  from  the  Divine  sympathy  and  hopefuhiess  in 
our  behalf.  The  Cross  is  the  actual  point  of  contact 
between  God  and  man.  It  is  the  point  at  which  the 
fulness  of  Divine  energy  is  actually  brought  to  bear 
upon  us  men.  To  receive  the  whole  benefit  and 
blessing  that  God  can  now  give  us  we  need  only  be  in 
true  contact  with  the  Cross  :  through  it  we  become 
direct  recipients  of  the  holiness,  the  love,  the  power,  of 
God.  In  it  Christ  is  made  to  us  wisdom,  and  righteous- 
ness, and  sanctification,  and  redemption.  In  very  truth 
all  that  God  can  do  for  us  to  set  us  free  from  sin  and 
to  restore  us  to  Him.self  and  happiness  is  done  for  us 
in  the  Cross;  and  through  it  we  receive  all  that  is 
needful,  all  that  God's  holiness  requires,  all  that  His 
love  desires  us  to  possess. 


DIVINE   WISDOM, 


"Howbeit  we  speak  wisdom  among  them  that  are  perfect:  j'et  not 
the  wisdom  of  this  world,  nor  of  the  princes  of  this  world,  that 
come  to  nought :  but  we  speak  the  wisdom  of  God  in  a  mystery, 
even  the  hidden  wisdom,  which  God  ordained  before  the  world 
unto  our  glory :  which  none  of  the  princes  of  this  world  knew  : 
for  had  they  known  it,  they  would  not  have  crucified  the  Lord  of 
glory.  But  as  it  is  written,  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither 
have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God  hath 
prepared  for  them  that  love  Him.  But  God  hath  revealed  them  unto 
us  by  His  Spirit:  for  the  Spirit  searchelh  all  things,  yea,  the  deep 
things  of  God.  For  what  man  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man,  save 
the  spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him  ?  even  so  the  things  of  God  knoweth 
no  man,  but  the  Spirit  of  God,  Now  we  have  received,  not  the 
spirit  of  the  world,  but  the  spirit  which  is  of  God  ;  that  we  might 
know  the  things  that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God.  Which  things 
also  we  speak,  not  in  the  words  which  man's  wisdom  teacheth, 
but  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth;  comparing  spiritual  things 
with  spiritual.  But  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  :  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him  :  neither  can 
he  know  them,  because  thej^  are  spiritually  discerned.  But  he  that 
is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things,  yet  he  himself  is  judged  of  no  man. 
For  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Lord,  that  he  may  instruct 
him  ?     But  we  have  the  mind  of  Christ." 

"And  I,  brethren,  could  not  speak  unto  you  as  unto  spiritual,  but 
as  unto  carnal,  even  as  unto  babes  in  Christ.  I  have  fed  you  with 
milk,  and  not  with  meat :  for  hitherto  ye  were  not  able  to  bear  it, 
neither  yet  now  are  ye  able.  For  ye  are  yet  carnal  :  for  whereas 
there  is  among  you  envying,  and  strife,  and  divisions,  are  ye  not 
carnal,  and  walk  as  men  ?  For  while  one  saith,  I  am  of  Paul ;  and 
another,  I  am  of  Apollos  ;  are  ye  not  carnal  ?  " — i  Cor.  ii.  6-iii.  4. 


V. 

DIVINE    WISDOM. 

IN  the  preceding  paragraph  Paul  has  explained  vAvy 
he  had  proclaimed  the  bare  facts  regarding  Christ 
and  His  crucifixion  and  trusted  to  the  Cross  itself  to 
impress  the   Corinthians   and  lead   them    to  God,  and 
why  he  had  resisted  the  temptation  to  appeal   to  the 
Corinthian    taste     for     rhetoric     and    philosophy    by 
exhibiting  Christianity  as  a  philosophy.     He  believed 
that  where  conversion  was  the  object  of  preaching  no 
method  could   compare  in   efficiency  with    the    simple 
presentation  of  the  Cross.     But   sometimes  he  found 
himself  in  circumstances  in  which  conversion  could  not 
be  his  object.     He  was  occasionally  called,  as  preachers 
in  our  own  day  are  regularly  called,  to  preach  to  those 
who  were  already  Christians.     And  he  tells  us  that  in 
these  circumstances,  speaking  *'  among  the  perfect,"  or 
in   presence  of  fairly  mature  Christians,  he  made  no 
scruple   of  unfolding  the  "  wisdom  "  or  philosophy  of 
Christ's  truth.     To  expound  the  deeper  truths  revealed 
by  Christ  was  useless  or  even  hurtful  to  mere  "  babes  " 
in  Christ  or  to  those  who  as  yet  were  not  even  born 
again ;  but  to  the  adolescent  and  to  those  who  might  lay 
claim  to  have  attained  some  firm  manhood  of  Christian 
character,  he  was  forward  to  teach  all  he  himself  knew. 
These  words,  ''  Howbeit  we  speak  wisdom  among  them 

5 


66      THE  FIRST  ETISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 

that  are  perfect,"  he  makes  the  text  of  the  following 
paragraph,  in  which  he  proceeds  to  explain  (i)  what 
the  wisdom  is;  (2)  how  he  speaks  it;  (3)  to  whom  he 
speaks  it. 

I.  First,  the  wisdom  which  he  speaks  among  the 
perfect,  though  eminently  deserving  of  the  name,  is  not 
on  a  level  with  human  philosophies,  nor  is  it  of  a 
similar  origin.  It  is  not  just  one  more  added  to  human 
searches  after  truth.  The  princes  of  this  world,  its 
men  of  light  and  leading,  have  had  their  own  theories 
of  God  and  man,  and  yet  have  really  ''come  to  nought." 
The  incompetence  of  the  men  and  theories  that  actually 
control  human  affairs  is  put  beyond  a  doubt  by  the 
crucifixion  of  Christ.  In  the  person  of  Christ  the  glory 
of  God  was  manifested  as  a  glory  in  which  man  was  to 
partake  ;  had  there  been  diffused  among  men  any  true 
perception  of  the  real  nature  of  God,  the  Crucifixion 
would  have  been  an  impossibility.  The  fact  that 
God's  incarnate  glory  was  crucified  is  a  demonstration 
of  the  insufficiency  of  all  previous  teaching  regarding 
'God.  But  the  wisdom  taught  by  Paul  is  not  just 
one  theory  more,  devised  by  the  speculative  ingenuity 
of  man ;  it  is  a  disclosure  made  by  God^oLJuiowledge 
unattainable  by  E"unLan__eiidea^our.  The  three  great 
sources  of  human  knowledge  —  seeing,  hearing,  and 
thought — alike  fail  here.  "  Eye  hath  not  seen,  ear 
hath  not  heard,  it  has  not  entered  into  the  heart  of 
man  to  conceive,"  this  wisdom.  Hitherto  it  has 
been  a  mystery,  a  thing  hidden  ;  now  God  has  Him- 
self revealed  it. 

What  the  contents  of  this  wisdom  are,  we  can  readily 

perceive    from  such  specimens  of  it  as  Paul  gives  us 

in  his   Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  and  elsewhere.     It  is 

,    a  declaration  of  the  Divine  purpose  towards  man,  or  of 


ii.  6-iii.4.]  DIVINE    WISDOM.  67 

"the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that 
love  Him."  Paul  delighted  to  expatiate  on  the  far- 
reaching  results  of  Christ's  death,  the  illustrations  it 
gives  of  the  nature  of  God  and  of  righteousness,  its 
place  as  the  grand  moral  centre,  holding  together  and 
reconciling  all  things.  He  delights  to  show  the  superio- 
rity of  the  Gospel  to  the  Law  and  to  build  up  a  philo- 
sophy of  history  which  sheds  light  on  the  entire  plan 
of  God's  training  of  men.  The  purpose  of  God  and 
its  fulfilment  by  the  death  of  Christ  he  is  never  weary 
of  contemplating,  nor  of  showing  how  out  of  destitution, 
and  disease,  and  war,  and  ignorance,  and  m.oral  ruin,  and 
what  seemed  a  mere  wreck  of  a  world  there  were  to  be 
brought  by  this  one  healing  element  the  restoration  of 
man  to  God  and  to  one  another,  fellowship  with  God 
and  peace  on  earth,  in  short  a  kingdom  of  God  among 
men.  He  clearly  saw  how  through  all  that  had  pre- 
viously happened  on  earth  and  through  all  that  men 
had  thought  preparation  had  been  made  for  the  fulfilment 
of  this  gracious  purpose  of  God.  These  were  "  the 
deep  things  of  God"  which  caused  him  to  see  how 
different  was  the  wisdom  of  God  from  the  wisdom  of 
men. 

This  "  wisdom  "  which  Paul  taught  has  had  a  larger 
and  more  influential  place  in  men's  minds  than  any 
other  system  of  human  thought.  Christendom  has 
seen  Christ  through  Paul's  eyes.  He  interpreted  Chris- 
tianity to  the  world,  and  made  men  aware  of  what 
had  been  and  was  in  their  m.idst.  Men  of  the  largest 
faculty,  such  as  Augustine  and  Luther,  have  been  unable 
to  find  a  rehgion  in  Christ  until  they  enter  ed  His  school 
by  Paul's  door.  Stumbling  at  one  or  two  Jewish 
peculiarities  which  attach  to  Paul's  theology,  some 
modern  critics  assure  us  that,  "after  having  been  for 


68      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

three  hundred  years" — and  they  might  have  said 
for  fifteen  hundred  years — "  the  Christian  doctor 
par  excellence^  Paul  is  now  coming  to  an  end  of  his 
reign."  Matthew  Arnold,  with  truer  discernment,  if 
not  on  sounder  grounds,  predicts  that  "  the  doctrine  of 
Paul  will  arise  out  of  the  tomb  where  for  centuries  it 
has  lain  buried.  It  will  edify  the  Church  of  the  future. 
It  will  have  the  consent  of  happier  generations,  the 
applause  of  less  superstitious  ages.  All  will  be  too 
little  to  pay  half  the  debt  which  the  Church  of  God 
owes  to  this  '  least  of  the  Apostles,  who  was  not  fit  to 
be  called  an  Apostle,  because  he  persecuted  the  Church 
of  God. ' " 

We  may  find  in  Paul's  writings  arguments  which, 
however  convincing  to  the  Jew,  are  not  convincing  to 
us  ;  we  may  prefer  his  experimental  and  ethical  to  his 
doctrinal  teaching ;  some  estimable  people  can  only 
accept  him  when  they  have  purged  him  of  his  Calvinism  ; 
others  shut  their  eyes  to  this  or  that  which  seems  to 
them  a  blot  in  his  writings ;  but  the  fact  remains  that 
it  is  to  this  man  we  owe  our  Christianity.  It  was  he 
who  disengaged  from  the  dying  body  of  Judaism  the 
new-born  religion  and  held  it  aloft  in  the  eye  of  the 
world  as  the  true  heir  to  universal  empire.  It  was  he 
whose  piercing  intellect  and  keen  moral  discernment 
penetrated  to  the  very  heart  of  this  new  thing,  and 
saw  in  it  a  force  to  conquer  the  world  and  to  rid  men 
of  all  bondage  and  evil  of  every  kind.  It  was  he  who 
applied  to  the  whole  range  of  human  life  and  duty  the 
inexhaustible  ethical  force  which  lay  in  Christ,  and 
thus  lifted  at  one  effort  the  heathen  world  to  a  new 
level  of  morality.  He  was  the  first  to  show  the 
superiority  of  love  to  law,  and  to  point  out  how  God 
trusted  to  love,  and  to  summon  men  to  meet  the  trust 


ii.6-iii.  4.]  DIVINE    WISDOM.  69 

God  thus  reposed  in  them.  We  cannot  measure  Paul's 
greatness,  because  the  Hght  he  has  himself  shed  has 
made  it  impossible  for  us  to  put  ourselves  back  in 
imagination  into  the  darkness  through  which  he  had 
to  find  his  way.  We  can  but  dimly  measure  the 
strength  that  was  required  to  grasp  as  he  grasped  the 
significance  of  God's  manifestation  in  the  flesh. 

Paul  then  used  two  methods  of  teaching.  In  ad- 
dressing those  who  had  yet  to  be  won  to  Christ,  he 
*  used  the  foolishness  of  preaching,  and  presented  to 
them  the  Cross  of  Christ.  In  addressing  those  who 
had  already  owned  the  power  of  the  Cross  and  made 
some  growth  in  Christian  knowledge  and  character,  he 
enlarged  upon  the  significance  of  the  Cross  and  the 
light  it  threw  on  all  moral  relations,  on  God  and  on 
man.  And  even  in  this  department  of  his  work  he 
disclaims  any  desire  to  propagate  a  philosophy  of  his 
own.  The  system  of  truth  he  proclaims  to  the  Chris- 
tian people  is  not  of  his  own  devising.  It  is  not  in 
virtue  of  his  own  speculative  ability  he  has  discovered 
it.  It  is  not  one  of  the  wisdoms  of  this  world,  having 
its  origin  in  the  brain  of  an  ingenious  theorist.  On 
the  contrary,  it  has  its  origin  in  God,  and  partakes 
therefore  of  the  truth  and  stability  attaching  to  the 
thoughts  of  God. 

II.  But  if  it  be  undiscoverable  by  man,  how  does 
Paul  come  to  know  it  ?  To  the  Corinthian  intelligence 
there  seemed  but  these  three  ways  of  learning  any- 
thing :  seeing,  hearing,  or  thinking  ;  and  if  God's  wisdom 
was  attainable  by  none  of  these,  how  was  it  reached  ? 
Paul  proceeds  to  show  how  he  was  enabled  to  '^  speak  " 
this  wisdom.  He  does  this  in  vers.  lO — 13,  in  which 
I  his  chief  affirmations  are  that  the  Spirit  of  God  alone 
j   knov/s  the  mind  of  God,  that  this  Spirit  has  been  given 


70      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 


to  him  to  reveal  to  him  Gcd's  mind  and  to  enable  him 
to  divulge  that  mind  to  others  in  suitable  v^'ords. 

I.  The  Spirit  of  God  alone  knows  the  mind  of  God 
and  searches  its  deep  things,  just  as  none  but  the 
spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him  knows  the  things  of  man. 
"  There  is  in  every  man  a  life  hidden  from  all  eyes,  a 
world  of  impressions,  anxieties,  aspirations,  and  struggles, 
of  which  he  alone,  in  so  far  as  he  is  a  spirit — that  is 
to  say,  a  conscious  and  personal  being — gives  account 
to  himself.  This  inner  world  is  unknown  to  others, 
except  in  so  far  as  he  reveals  it  to  them  by  sptech."^ 
And  if  we  are  baffled  often  and  deceived  regarding 
human  character  and  find  ourselves  unable  to  penetrate 
to  the  "  deep  things  "  of  man,  to  his  inmost  thoughts  and 
motives,  much  more  is  it  true  that  "  the  deep  things " 
of  God  are  wholly  beyond  our  ken  and  are  only  known 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  which  is  in  Him.  A  v.ngue  and 
uncertain  guess,  possibly  not  altogether  wrong,  probably 
altogether  wrong,  is  all  we  can  attain  to. 

And  still  more  certainly  true  is  this  of  God^s  purposes. 
Even  though  you  flatter  yourself  you  know  a  man's 
nature,  you  cannot  certainly  predict  his  intentions. 
You  cannot  anticipate  the  thoughts  of  an  able  man 
whom  you  see  designing  a  machine,  or  planning  a 
building,  or  conceiving  a  literary  work  ;  you  cannot  say 
in  what  form  a  vindictive  man  will  wreak  his  vengeance; 
nor  can  you  penetrate  through  the  abstracted  look  of 
the  charitable  and  read  the  precise  form  his  bounty  will 
take.  Every  great  work  even  of  man  comes  upon  us 
by  surprise ;  the  various  inventions  that  facilitate 
business,  the  new  pcems,  the  new  books,  the  new 
works  of  art,  have  never  been  conceived  before.     They 


Godet. 


ii.  6-iii.4.]  DIVINE    WISDOM.  71 

were  hidden  m3^steries  until  the  originating  mind  dis- 
closed them.  And  much  more  were  God's  intentions 
and  His  method  of  accomplishing  inconceivable  by  any 
but  Himself.  What  God's  purpose  was  in  creating 
man,  what  He  designed  to  accomplish  through  the 
death  of  Christ,  what  was  to  be  the  outcome  of  all 
human  life,  and  temptation,  and  struggle — these  things 
were  God's  secret,  known  only  to  the  Spirit  of  God 
that  was  in  Him. 

2.  This  Spirit,  Paul  declares,  was  given  to  him,  and 
revealed  to  him  God's  purposes,  "  the  things  which  are 
freely  given  to  us  of  God."  He  had  received  "  not  the 
spirit  of  the  world,"  which  would  have  enabled  him 
only  to  theorize,  and  speculate,  and  create  another 
*'  wisdom  of  this  world ; "  but  he  had  received  "  the 
Spirit  which  is  of  God,"  and  this  Spirit  had  revealed  to 
him  "  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them 
that  love  Him." 

We  may  think  of  revelation  either  as  the  act  of 
God  or  as  it  is  received  by  man.  God  reveals  Himself 
in  all  He  does,  as  man  discloses  his  character  in  all 
he  does.  With  God's  first  act  therefore  in  the  re- 
motest past  revelation  began.  As  yet  there  was  none 
to  receive  the  knowledge  of  God,  but  God  showed  His 
nature  and  His  purpose  as  soon  as  He  began  to  do 
anything.  And  this  revelation  of  Himself  has  continued 
ever  since.  In  the  world  around  us  and  the  earth  on 
which  we  live  God  reveals  Himself;  "the  things  which 
are  made,"  as  Paul  says,  ^'  give  us  clearly  to  see  and 
understand  the  invisible  things  of  God,  His  unseen 
nature,  from  the  creation  of  the  world."  Still  more 
fully  is  God's  nature  revealed  in  man  :  in  conscience, 
distinguishing  between  right  and  wrong;  in  the  spirit 
craving  fellowship  with   the   Eternal.      In   the   history 


72      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS 

of  nations,  and  especially  in  the  history  of  that  nation 
which  founded  itself  upon  its  idea  of  God,  He  revealed 
Himself.  By  guiding  it,  by  delivering  it  from  Egypt, 
by  punishing  it,  God  made  Himself  known  to  Israel. 
And  at  length  in  Jesus  Christ  God  gave  the  fullest 
possible  manifestation  of  Himself.  The  veil  was  en- 
tirely lifted,  and  God  came  as  much  as  possible  into 
free  intercourse  with  His  creatures.  He  put  Himself 
within  reach  of  our  knowledge. 

But  it  was  not  enough  that  God  be  revealed  objec- 
tively in  Christ;  there  must  also  be  a  subjective 
revelation  within  the  soul  of  the  beholder.  It  was  not 
enough  that  God  be  m.anifested  in  the  flesh  and  men 
be  allowed  to  draw  such  inferences  as  they  could  from 
that  manifestation ;  but,  in  addition  to  this,  God  gave 
His  Spirit  to  Paul  and  others  that  they  might  see  the 
full  significance  of  that  manifestation.  It  was  quite 
possible  for  men  to  be  witnesses  of  the  objective  reve- 
lation without  understanding  it.  The  open  eye  is 
needed  as  well  as  outward  light.  And  Paul  everywhere 
insists  upon  this  :  that  he  had  received  his  knowledge 
of  Divine  truth  by  revelation^  not  by  the  mere  exercise 
Vof  his  own  unaided  thought,  but  by  a  spiritual  enlighten- 
ment through  the  gift  of  God's  Spirit. 

The  presence  of  God's  Spirit  in  any  man  can  of 
course  only  be  verified  by  the  results.  God's  Spirit 
working  in  and  by  means  of  man's  nature  cannot  be 
known  in  separation  from  the  man's  spirit  and  the 
work  done  in  that  spirit.  This  inward  revelation  which 
Paul  refers  to  is  accomplished  by  the  action  of  the 
I  Divine  Spirit  on  the  human  faculties,  quickening  and 
elevating  these  faculties.  The  revelation  or  new  know- 
ledge acquired  by  Paul  was  given  by  God,  but  at  the 
same  time  was  acquired   by   Paul's   own   faculties,  so 


ii.  6-iii.  4.]  DIVINE    WISDOM.  73 

that  it  remained  with  him  always j'ust  as  the  knowledge 
we  naturally  acquire  remains  with  us  and  can  be  freely 
used  by  us.  An  inward  revelation  can  come  to  a  man 
only  in  the  form  of  impressions,  convictions,  thoughts 
arising  in  his  own  mind.  Paul  knew  that  his  know- 
ledge was  a  revelation  of  God,  not  by  the  suddenness 
with  which  it  was  imparted,  not  by  supernatural 
appearances  accompanying  it,  not  by  any  sense  or 
consciousness  of  another  Spirit  working  w^th  his  own, 
but  by  the  results.  It  is  always  the  substance  or 
contents  of  any  revelation  which  proves  its  origin. 
Paul  knew  he  had  the  mind  of  Christ  because  he  found 
that  he  could  understand  Christ's  words  and  work, 
could  perfectly  sympathize  with  His  aims  and  look 
at  things  from  Christ's  point  of  view. 

In  their  humiHty,  many  persons  shrink  from  making 
this  affirmation  here  made  by  Paul ;  they  cannot  ever 
unhesitatingly  affirm  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  given 
them  or  that  they  have  the  mind  of  Christ.  Such 
persons  should  recognise  that  it  was  the  very  humility 
of  Paul  which  enabled  him  so  confidently  to  affirm 
these  things  of  himself.  He  knew  that  the  knowledge 
of  Christ's  purposes  he  had  and  the  sympathy  with 
them  were  the  evidence  of  God's  Spirit  working  in  hnn. 
He  knew  that  without  God's  Spirit  he  himself  could 
never  have  had  these  thoughts.  And  it  is  when  we 
recognise  our  own  insufficiency  most  that  we  are 
readiest  to  confess  the  presence  of  God's  Spirit. 

3.  But  Paul  makes  a  further  affirmation.  Not  only 
is  the  knowledge  he  has  of  Divine  things  a  revelation 
made  by  God's  Spirit  to  him,  but  the  words  in  which 
he  declares  this  revelation  to  others  are  taught  him 
by  the  same  Spirit  ;  "  which  things  we  also  speak,  not 
in  the  words  which  man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but  which 


74      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth,  comparing  spiritual  things 
with  spiritual."  The  meaning  of  these  last  words  is 
doubtful.  They  either  mean  "  fitting  spiritual  words 
to  spiritual  truths,"  or  "  applying  spiritual  truths  to 
spiritual  people."  The  sense  of  the  passage  is  not 
materially  altered  whichever  meaning  is  adopted.  Paul 
distinctly  affirms  that  as  his  knowledge  is  gained  by 
God's  revealing  it  to  him,  so  his  utterance  of  this 
knowledge  is  by  the  inspiration  of  God.  The  spirit 
of  the  world  produces  its  philosophies  and  clothes  them 
in  appropriate  language.  The  philosophies  with  which 
the  Corinthians  were  familiar  taught  how  the  world 
was  made  and  what  man's  nature  is,  and  they  did  so 
in  language  full  of  technicalities  and  adorned  with 
rhetorical  devices.  Paul  disclaimed  this ;  both  his 
knowledge  and  the  form  in  which  he  taught  it  were 
dictated,  not  by  the  spirit  of  this  world,  but  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.  The  same  truths  which  Paul  declared 
might  have  been  declared  in  better  Greek  than  he  used, 
and  they  might  have  been  embellished  with  illustrative 
matter  and  references  to  their  own  authors.  This  style 
of  presenting  Divine  truth  miay  have  been  urged  upon 
Paul  by  some  of  his  Corinthian  hearers  as  far  more 
likely  to  find  entrance  into  the  Greek  mind.  But  Paul 
refused  to  allow  his  style  to  be  formed  by  human 
wisdom  and  the  literary  methods  of  secular  authors, 
and  thought  it  more  suitable  to  proclaim  spiritual  truth 
in  spiritual  language  and  in  words  which  were  taught 
him  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

This  statement  of  Paul  may  be  construed  into  a 
guarantee  of  the  general  accuracy  of  his  teaching  ;  but 
it  was  not  intended  to  be  that.  Paul  did  not  express 
himself  in  this  wa}^  in  order  to  convince  men  of  his 
accuracy,  still  less  to  convince  them  that  every  word 


ii.6-iii.4.]  DIVINE    IVISDOM.  75 

he  uttered  was  infallibly  correct  ;  what  he  intended 
was  to  justify  his  use  of  a  certain  kind  of  language  and 
a  certain  style  of  teaching.  The  spirit  of  this  world 
adopts  one  method  of  insinuating  knowledge  into  the 
mind  ;  the  Spirit  of  God  uses  another  method.  It  is 
the  latter  Paul  adopts.  That  is  what  he  means  to 
say,  and  it  is  obvious  that  from  this  statement  of  his 
we  can  gather  nothing  regarding  verbal  inspiration  or 
the  infallibility  of  every  word  he  spoke. 

It  might  indeed  seem  a  very  simple  and  sound 
argument  v/ere  we  to  say  that  Paul  affirms  that  the 
words  in  which  he  embodies  his  teaching  are  taught 
him  by  the  Holy  Ghost^  and  that  therefore  there  can 
be  no  error  in  them.  But  to  interpret  the  words  01 
any  writer  with  no  regard  to  his  intention  in  writmg 
them  is  voluntarily  to  blind  ourselves  to  their  true 
meaning.  And  Paul's  intention  in  this  passage  is  to 
contrast  two  methods  of  teaching,  two  styles  of  language, 
the  worldly  or  secular  and  the  spiritual,  and  to  affirm 
that  the  style  he  adopted  was  that  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  taught  him.  An  artist  whose  work  was  criticised 
might  defend  himself  by  saying,  '*  I  have  been  trained 
in  the  Impressionist  school,"  or  "  I  use  the  principles 
taught  me  by  Ruskin,"  or  "  I  am  a  pupil  of  this  or  the 
other  great  teacher ; "  but  these  replies,  while  quite 
relevant  as  a  defence  and  explanation  of  the  particular 
style  of  painting  he  has  adopted,  are  not  intended  to 
identify  the  work  of  the  scholar  with  that  of  the  master, 
or  to  insinuate  that  the  master  is  responsible  for  all 
the  pupil  does.  Similarly  Paul's  reply  is  relevant  as 
an  explanation  of  his  reason  for  refusing  to  use  the 
methods  of  professional  rhetoricians  in  teaching  his 
spiritual  truths.  ''Spiritual  modes  of  presenting  truth 
and  an  avoidance  of  rhetorical  artifice  and  embellish- 


76      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 


ment  accord  better  with  what  I  have  to  say."  Whoever 
gathers  from  this  that  every  individual  word  Paul 
spoke  or  wrote  is  absolutely  the  best  does  so  at  his 
own  risk  and  without  Paul's  authority.  Certainly  it 
was  not  Paul's  intention  to  make  any  such  statement. 
And  it  is  quite  as  dangerous  to  put  too  much  into  Paul's 
words  as  to  put  too  little. 

III.  Having  shown  that  the  wisdom  he  teaches  is 
spiritual,  and  that  his  method  of  teaching  it  is  spiritual, 
he  proceeds  finally  to  show  that  it  can  be  taught  only 
to  spiritual  persons.  "The  spiritual  man  judgeth  all 
things ; "  he  can  discern  whether  he  is  "  among  the 
perfect"  or  among  the  carnal,  whether  he  may  speak 
wisdom  or  must  confine  himself  to  elementary  truth. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  himself  cannot  be  judged 
by  the  carnal  man.  It  is  in  vain  that  rudimentary 
believers  find  fault  with  Paul's  method  of  teaching  ; 
they  cannot  judge  him,  because  they  cannot  understand 
the  mind  of  the  Lord  which  guides  him.  It  would 
have  served  no  purpose  to  teach  spiritual  wisdom  in 
Corinth,  for  the  members  of  that  Church  were  as  yet 
only  babes  in  Christ,  carnal,  and  not  spiritual.  Their 
carnality  was  proved  by  their  factiousness.  They  were 
still  governed  by  the  passions  which  rule  the  natural 
man.  And  therefore  Paul  fed  them  with  milk,  and  not 
with  strong  meat ;  with  the  simple  and  affecting  Gospel 
of  the  Cross,  and  not  with  those  high  and  far-reaching 
deductions  from  it  which  he  divulged  among  prepared 
and  sympathetic  spirits. 

In  the  distinctions  of  men  into  natural,  carnal,  and 
spiritual  Paul  here  show  show  untrammelled  he  was 
by  theological  technicalities,  and  how  straight  he 
looked  at  facts.  He  does  not  divide  men  summarily 
into  believers  and  unbelievers,  classing  all  believers  as 


a.  6-iii.  4.]  DIVINE    WISDOM.  77 

spiritual,  all  unbelievers  as  carnal.  He  does  not 
unchurch  all  who  are  not  spiritual.  He  may  be  dis- 
appointed that  certain  members  of  the  Church  are 
carnal  and  are  very  slov^r  in  growing  up  to  the  maturity 
of  Christian  manhood,  but  he  does  not  deny  such 
carnal  persons  a  place  in  the  Church.  He  gives  them 
time.  He  does  not  flatter  them  or  deceive  them  as  to 
their  condition.  He  neither  counts  them  as  perfect 
nor  repudiates  them  as  unregenerate.  He  allows  they 
are  born  again ;  but  as  the  babe  is  apparently  a  mere 
animal,  exhibiting  no  qualities  of  mind  or  heart,  but 
only  animal  instincts,  and  yet  by  care  and  suitable 
nourishment  develops  into  adult  man,  so  the  Christian 
babe  may  as  yet  be  carnal,  with  very  little  to  differen- 
tiate him  from  the  natural  man,  yet  the  germ  of  the 
spiritual  Christian  may  be  there,  and  with  care  and 
suitable  nourishm.ent  will  grow. 

The  confidence  which  Paul  here  expresses  regarding 
his  superiority  to  the  judgment  of  carnal  men  is  a 
superiority  inseparable  from  knowledge  in  any  depart- 
ment. Truth  carries  with  it  always  a  self-evidencing 
power,  and  whoever  attains  a  clear  perception  of  truth 
in  any  branch  of  knowledge  is  aware  that  it  is  the. 
truth  he  has  attained.  When  the  mind  has  been  long 
puzzling  over  a  difficulty  and  at  last  sees  the  solution, 
it  is  as  if  the  sun  had  risen.  The  mind  is  at  once 
convinced. 

No  one  had  ever  greater  right  than  Paul  to  say,  "  I 
have  the  mind  of  Christ."  Every  day  of  his  life  said 
the  same  thing.  He  at  once  entered  into  Christ's  mind 
and  more  than  any  other  man  carried  it  out.  It  was 
by  his  moral  sympathy  with  Christ's  aims  that  he 
entered  so  completely  into  the  knowledge  of  His 
person  and  work.     He  lived  his  way  into  the  truth. 


78      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

And  all  our  best  knowledge  is  reached  in  the  same 
way.  The  truths  we  see  most  clearly  and  have 
deepest  assurance  of  are  those  which  our  own  experi- 
ence has  taught  us.  Spiritual  truth  is  of  a  kind  which 
only  spiritual  men  can  understand. 

Spiiitual  men  are  those  who  can  say,  with  Paul,  "We 
have  received,  not  the  spirit  of  the  world,  but  the  Spirit 
which  is  of  God,  that  we  might  know  the  things  that 
are  freely  given  to  us  of  God."  What  men's  eyes  need 
especially  to  be  opened  to  is  the  bounty  of  God  and 
the  consequent  wealth  and  hopefulness  of  human  life. 
Paul's  wondering  delight  in  God's  grace  and  loving 
adaptation  of  Himself  to  human  needs  continually 
finds  utterance  in  his  writings.  His  own  sense  of 
unworthiness  magnified  the  forgiving  mercy  of  God. 
He  rejoiced  in  a  Divine  love  which  was  passing  know- 
ledge, but  which  he  knew  could  be  relied  upon  to  the 
utmost.  The  vision  of  this  love  opened  to  his  hope  a 
vista  of  happiness.  There  is  a  natural  joy  in  living 
that  all  men  can  understand.  This  life  in  many  ways 
appeals  to  our  thirst  for  happiness,  and  often  it  seems 
as  if  we  needed  nothing  more.  But,  in  one  way  or 
other,  most  of  us  karn  that  what  is  naturally  presented 
to  us  in  this  world  is  not  enough,  indeed  only  brings 
in  the  long  run  anxiety  and  grief.  And  then  it  is  that, 
by  God's  grace,  men  come  to  find  that  this  life  is  but 
a  small  Ir.gcon  leading  to,  and  fed  by,  the  boundless 
ocean  of  God's  love  beyond.  They  learn  that  there 
is  a  hope  that  cannot  be  blighted,  a  joy  that  is 
uninterrupted,  a  fulness  of  life  that  meets  and  satisfies 
every  instinct,  and  affection,  and  purpose.  They 
begin  to  see  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for 
them  that  love  Him,  the  things  that  are  freely  given  to 
us  of  God — "  freely  given,"    given   without  desert    of 


ii.6-iii.4.]  DIVINE    WISDOM.  79 


ours,  given  to  make  us  happy,  given  by  a  love  that 
must  find  expression. 

But  to  know  and  appreciate  the  things  v^hich  arc 
freely  given  to  us  of  God  a  man  must  have  the  Spirit 
of  God.  For  God's  gifts  are  spiritual ;  they  attach  to 
character,  to  what  is  eternally  ours.  They  cannot  be 
received  by  those  who  refuse  the  severity  of  God's 
training  and  are  not  alive  to  the  reality  of  spiritual 
growth,  of  passing  from  a  carnal  to  a  spiritual  manhood. 
The  path  to  these  eternal,  all-satisfying  joys  may  be 
hard;  Christ's  path  was  not  easy,  and  they  who  follow 
Him  must  in  one  form  or  other  have  their  faith  in  the 
unseen  tested.  They  must  really,  and  not  only  in  word, 
pass  from  dependence  on  this  present  world  to  de- 
pendence on  God ;  they  must  somehow  come  to  believe 
that  underneath  and  in  all  we  here  see  and  experience 
lies  God's  unalterable,  unmingled  love,  that  ultimately 
it  is  this  they  have  to  do  with,  this  that  explains  all. 

How  soon  do  men  think  they  have  exhausted  the 
one  inexhaustible,  the  love  and  resources  of  God ; 
how  quickly  do  men  weary  of  life,  and  think  they 
have  seen  all  and  known  all ;  how  ready  are  men  to 
conclude  that  for  them  existence  is  a  failure  and  can 
yield  no  perfect  joy,  while  as  yet  they  know  as  little 
of  the  things  God  has  prepared  for  them  that  love 
Him  as  the  new-born  babe  knows  of  the  life  and 
experiences  that  lie  before  it.  You  have  but  touched 
the  hem  of  His  garment ;  what  must  it  be  to  be  clasped 
to  His  heart  ?  Happy  they  to  whom  the  darkness 
of  this  world  reveals  the  boundless  distances  of  the 
starry  heaven,  and  who  find  that  the  blows  which  have 
shattered  their  earthly  happiness  have  merely  broken 
the  shell  which  confined  their  true  life  and  have  given 
them  entrance  into  a  world  infinite  and  eternal. 


cons  HUSBANDRY  AND  BUILDING. 


"  Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is  Apollos,  but  ministers  by  whom 
ye  believed,  even  as  the  Lord  gave  to  every  man  ?  I  have  planted, 
Apollos  watered ;  but  God  gave  the  increase.  So  then  neither  is  he 
that  planteth  any  thing,  neither  he  that  watereth ;  but  God  that 
giveth  the  increase.  Now  he  that  planteth  and  he  that  watereth  are 
one :  and  every  man  shall  receive  his  own  reward  according  to  his 
own  labour.  For  we  are  labourers  together  with  God  :  ye  are  God's 
husbandry,  ye  are  God's  building.  According  to  the  grace  of  God 
which  is  given  unto  me,  as  a  wise  masterbuilder,  I  have  laid  the 
foundation,  and  another  buildeth  thereon.  But  let  every  man  take 
heed  how  he  buildeth  thereupon.  For  other  foundation  can  no  man 
lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ.  Now  if  any  man  build 
upon  this  foundation  gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  wood,  hay,  stubble; 
every  man's  work  shall  be  made  manifest :  for  the  day  shall  declare 
it,  because  it  shall  be  revealed  by  fire  ;  and  the  fire  shall  try  every 
man's  work  of  what  sort  it  is.  If  any  man's  work  abide  which  he 
hath  built  thereupon,  he  shall  receive  a  reward.  If  any  man's  work 
shall  be  burned,  he  shall  suffer  loss  :  but  he  himself  shall  be  saved ; 
yet  so  as  by  fire.  Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  the  temple  of  God,  and 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you  ?  If  any  man  defile  the  temple 
of  God,  him  shall  God  destroy;  for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  which 
temple  ye  are.  Let  no  man  deceive  himself.  If  any  man  among  you 
sccmeth  to  be  wise  in  this  world,  let  him  become  a  fool,  that  he  may 
be  wise.  For  the  wisdom  of  this  world  is  foolishness  with  God. 
For  it  is  written,  He  taketh  the  wise  in  their  own  craftiness.  And 
again,  The  Lord  knowcth  the  thoughts  of  the  wise,  that  they  are 
vain.  Therefore  let  no  man  glory  in  men.  For  all  things  are  your's  : 
whether  Paul,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas,  or  the  world,  or  life,  or  death, 
or  things  present,  or  things  to  come;  all  are  your's;  and  ye  are 
Christ's;  and  Christ  is  God's." — l  Cor.  iii.  5-23. 


VI. 

GOD'S  HUSBANDRY  AND  BUILDING. 

PAUL,  having  abundantly  justified  his  method  of 
preaching  to  the  Corinthians,  and  having  shown 
why  he  contented  himself  with  the  simple  presentation 
of  the  Cross,  resumes  his  direct  rebuke  of  their  party 
spirit.  He  has  told  them  that  they  were  as  yet  unfit  to 
hear  the  ''  wisdom  "  which  he  taught  in  some  Churches, 
and  the  very  proof  of  their  immaturity  is  to  be  found  in 
their  partisanship.  "  While  one  saith,  I  am  of  Paul, 
and  another,  I  am  of  ApoUos,  are  ye  not  carnal  ? 
Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is  Apollos,  but  ministers 
by  whom  ye  believed?"  The  teachers  by  whose  names 
they  were  proud  to  be  known  were  not  founders  of 
schools  nor  heads  of  parties,  who  sought  recognition 
and  supremacy;  they  were  " ministers,"  servants  who 
were  used  by  a  common  Lord  to  rouse  faith,  not  in 
themselves,  but  in  Him.  Each  had  his  own  gifts  and 
his  own  task.  "  I  have  planted."  To  me  it  was  given  to 
found  the  Church  at  Corinth.  Apollos  came  after  me, 
and  helped  my  plant  to  grow.  But  it  was  God  Himself 
who  gave  the  vital  influence  requisite  to  make  our  work 
efficacious.  Apollos  and  I  are  but  one  instrument  in 
God's  hand,  as  the  man  who  sets  the  sails  and  he  who 
holds  the  helm  are  one  instrument  used  b}^  the  master  of 
the  ship,  or  as  the  mason  who  hews  and  the  builder  who 


84      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

sets  the  stones  in  their  places  are  one  instrument  for 
the  carrying  out  of  the  masterbuilder's  design.  "We 
are  fellow-labourers  used  by  God ;  ye  are  God's 
husbandry,   Gotfs  building." 

Throughout  this  paragraph  it  is  this  thought  that 
Paul  dwells  upon  :  that  the  Church  is  originated  and 
maintained,  not  by  men,  but  by  God.  Teachers  are 
but  God's  instruments  ;  and  yet,  being  human  instru- 
ments, they  have  each  his  own  responsibility,  as  each 
has  his  own  part  of  the  one  work. 

From  this  truth  that  God  alone  is  the  Giver  of 
spiritual  life  and  that  the  Church  is  His  building 
several  inferences  may  be  drawn. 

I.  Our  praise  for  any  good  we  have  received  of  a 
spiritual  kind  should  be  given,  not  solely  to  men,  but 
mainly  to  God.  The  Corinthians  were  conscious  that 
in  receiving  Christianity  they  had  received  a  very  great 
boon.  They  felt  that  gratitude  was  due  somewhere. 
The  new  thoughts  they  had  of  God,  the  consciousness 
of  Christ's  eternal  love,  the  hope  of  immortality,  the 
sustaining  influence  of  the  friendship  of  Christ,  the 
new  world  they  seemed  to  live  in — all  this  made  them 
think  of  those  who  had  brought  them  this  new  happi- 
ness. But  Paul  was  afraid  lest  their  acknowledgment 
of  himself  and  Apollos  should  eclipse  their  gratitude 
to  God.  People  sometimes  congratulate  themselves 
on  having  adopted  a  good  style  of  religion,  not  too 
sentimental,  not  sensational  and  spai^odic,  not 
childishly  external,  not  coldly  doctrinal ;  they  are 
thankful  they  lit  upon  the  books  they  read  at  a  critical 
time  of  their  spiritual  and  mental  growth  ;  they  can 
clearly  trace  to  certain  persons  an  influence  which  they 
know  strengthened  their  character;  and  they  think  \^ith 
gratitude  and  sometimes  with  excessive  admiration  of 


iii.  5-23.]     GOD'S  HUSBANDRY  AND  BUILDING.  85 


such  books  and  persons.  Paul  would  say  to  them,  It 
is  not  culpable  to  think  with  gratitude  of  those  who 
have  been  instrumental  in  furthering  your  knowledge 
of  the  truth  or  your  Christian  life  ;  but  always  remember 
that  3^ou  are  God's  husbandry  and  God's  building,  and 
that  it  is  to  Him  all  your  praise  must  ultimately  go. 

2.  It  is  to  God  we  must  look  for  all  further  growth. 
We  must  use  the  best  books ;  we  must  put  ourselves 
under  influences  which  we  know  are  good  for  us, 
whatever  they  are  for  others ;  we  must  conscientiously 
employ  such  means  of  grace  as  our  circumstances 
permit ;  but,  above  all,  we  must  ask  God  to  give  the 
increase.  No  doubt  the  use  of  the  means  God  uses  to 
increase  our  life  is  a  silent  but  constant  prayer ;  still 
we  are  not  mere  trees  planted  to  wait  for  such 
influences  as  come  to  us,  but  have  wills  to  choose  the 
life  these  influences  bring  and  to  open  our  being  to 
the  living  God  who  imparts  Himself  to  us  in  and 
through  them. 

3.  If  we  are  God's  husbandry  and  building,  let  us 
reverence  God's  work  in  ourselves.  It  may  seem  a 
very  ricketty  and  insecure  structure  that  is  rising 
within  us,  a  very  sickly  and  unpromising  plant ;  and  we 
are  tempted  to  mock  the  beginnings  of  good  in  our- 
selves and  be  disappointed  at  the  slow  progress  the 
new  man  makes  in  us.  Vexed  at  our  small  attainment, 
at  the  poor  show  among  Christians  our  character 
makes,  at  the  stunted  appearance  the  plant  of  grace  in 
us  presents,  we  are  tempted  to  trample  it  once  for  all 
out  of  sight.  Grace  sometimes  seems  to  do  so  little 
for  us  in  emergencies,  and  the  transformation  of  our 
character  seems  so  unutterably  slow  and  shallow,  that 
we  are  disposed  to  think  the  radical  change  we  need 
can  never  be    accomplished.      But    different   thoughts 


86      THE  i'JRSr  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 


possess  us  when  we  remember  that  this  transformation 
of  character  is  not  a  thing  to  be  accomphshed  only  b}' 
ourselves  through  a  judicious  choice  and  a  persevering 
use  of  fit  means,  but  is  God's  work.  There  may  be 
little  appearance  or  promise  of  good  in  3'ou  ;  but  under- 
neath the  little  there  is  lies  what  is  infinitely  great, 
even  the  purpose  and  love  of  God  Himself.  ''  Ye  are 
God's  husbandry  ;  "  therefore  hope  becomes  you.  The 
deliverance  of  the  human  soul  from  evil,  its  redemption 
to  purity  and  nobility — this  is  what  engages  all  God's 
care  and  energy. 

4.  For  the  same  reason  we  must  hope  for  others  as 
for  ourselves.  It  is  the  foundation  of  all  hope  to 
know  that  God  has  always  been  inclining  men  to 
righteousness  and  will  always  do  so.  So  often  we 
look  sadly  at  the  godlessness,  and  frivolity,  and  deep 
degradation  and  misery  that  abound,  and  feel  as  if  the 
burden  of  lifting  men  to  a  higher  condition  lay  all  upon 
us  ;  the  ceaseless  flow  of  hum.an  life  into  and  out  of  the 
world,  the  hopeless  conditions  in  which  many  are  born, 
the  frightful  influences  to  which  they  are  exposed,  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  winning  even  cne  man  to  good, 
the  possibility  that  no  more  may  be  won  and  that  the 
Christian  stock  may  die  out — these  considerations 
oppress  the  spirit,  and  cause  men  to  despair  of  ever 
seeing  a  kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  But  Paul  could 
never  despair,  because  he  was  at  all  times  convinced 
that  the  whole  energy  that  ceaselessly  goes  forth  from 
God  goes  forth  to  accomplish  good,  and  nothing  but 
good,  and  that  among  the  good  ends  God  is  accomplish- 
ing there  is  nothing  for  which  He  has  sacrificed  so 
much  and  at  which  He  so  determinedly  aims  as  the 
restoration  of  men  to  purity,  love,  and  goodness. 

5.  But  the  chief  inference  Paul  draws  from  the  truth 


iii.  5-23.]     GODS  HUSBANDRY  AND  BUILDING.  87 

that  the  Church  is  God's  building  is  the  grave  respon- 
sibihty  of  those  who  labour  for  God  in  this  work. 
As  for  Paul's  own  part  in  the  work,  the  laying  of  the 
foundation,  he  says  that  was  comparatively  easy. 
There  was  no  chance  of  his  making  a  mistake  there. 
''  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid, 
which  is  Jesus  Christ."  Any  teacher  who  professes  to 
lay  another  foundation  thereby  gives  up  his  claim  to  be 
a  Christian  teacher.  If  any  one  proceeds  to  lay  another 
foundation  than  Christ,  it  is  not  a  Christian  Church 
he  is  meaning  to  build.  He  who  does  not  proceed 
upon  the  facts  of  Christ's  life  and  death,  he  whose 
instruction  does  not  presuppose  Christ  as  its  founda- 
tion, may  be  useful  for  some  purposes  of  life,  but  not  as 
a  builder  of  the  Christian  temple.  He  who  teaches 
morality  without  ever  hinting  that  apart  from  Christ 
it  cannot  be  attained  in  its  highest  form  may  have  his 
use,  but  not  as  a  Christian  teacher.  He  who  uses  the 
Christian  pulpit  for  the  propagation  of  political  or 
socialist  ideas  may  be  a  sound  and  useful  teacher ; 
but  his  proper  place  is  the  platform,  or  the  House  of 
Commons  or  some  such  institution,  and  not  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  And  the  question  at  present,  says  Paul, 
is  not  what  other  institutions  you  may  profitably  found 
in  the  world,  but  how  this  institution  of  the  Church, 
already  founded,  is  to  be  completed.  Oth^r  foundation 
no  Christian  teacher  is  proposing  to  lay ;  but  on  this 
foundation  very  various  and  questionable  material  is 
being  built,  in  some  instances  gold,  silver,  and  stones 
of  value,  in  others  wood,  ha}^,  stubble. 

When  Corinth  rose  from  its  ruins,  it  was  no  un- 
common sight  to  see  a  miserable  hovel  reared  against 
the  marble  wall  of  a  temple  or  the  splendid  portico  of 
some  deserted   palace  rendered  habitable  by  a  patch- 


88      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

work  of  mud  and  straw.  What  a  recent  visitor  saw  at 
Luxor  may  be  accepted  as  to  seme  extent  true  of 
Corinth  :  "  Mud  hovels,  mud  pigeon-towers,  mud  yards, 
and  a  mud  mosque  cluster  like  wasps'  nests  in  and 
about  the  ruins.  Architraves  sculptured  with  royal 
titles  support  the  roofs  of  squalid  cabins.  Stately 
capitals  peep  out  from  the  midst  of  sheds  in  which 
buffaloes,  camels,  donkeys,  dogs,  and  human  beings 
herd  together  in  unsavoury  fellowship."  So  in  Corinth 
the  huge  slabs  of  costly  and  carefully  chiselled  stone 
la}^  stable  as  the  rock  on  which  they  rested,  but  now 
the  glory  of  such  foundations  was  dishonoured  by 
squalid  superstructures.  And  the  picture  in  Paul's 
mind's  eye  of  the  Corinthian  Church  vividly  suggested 
what  he  had  seen  while  walking  among  those  heteroge- 
neous buildings.  He  sees  the  Church  rising  with  a 
strange  mixture  of  design  and  material.  The  founda- 
tion, he  knows,  is  the  same ;  but  on  the  solid  marble  is 
reared  a  crazy  structure  of  second-hand  and  ill-adapted 
material,  here  a  Vv'all  propped  up  with  rotten  planking, 
there  a  hole  stopped  with  straw,  on  one  side  a  richly 
decorated  gateway,  with  gold  and  silver  profusely 
wrought  into  its  design,  on  the  other  side  a  clay 
partition  or  loose  boarding.  It  grieves  him  to  see  the 
incongruous  structure.  He  sees  the  teachers  bringing, 
with  great  appearance  of  diligence,  the  merest  rubbish, 
wood,  hay,  stubble,  apparently  unconscious  of  the 
incongruity  of  their  material  with  the  foundation  they 
build  upon.  He  sees  them  taken  with  every  passing 
fancy — the  lifeless  stubble  that  has  lost  its  living  seed 
of  truth,  the  mud  of  the  common  highway,  the  readiest 
thoughts  that  come  to  hand — and  setting  these  in  the 
temple  wall. 

What  would   Paul  say  did  he  now  see  the  super- 


i.  5-23.]     GOD'S  HUSBANDRY  AND  BUILDING.  89 


Structure  which  eighteen  hundred  years  have  raised 
on  the  one  foundation  ?  Is  any  more  heterogene- 
ous structure  anywhere  to  be  seen  than  the  Church  of 
Christ  ?  How  obviously  unworthy  of  the  foundation  is 
much  that  has  been  built  upon  it ;  how  many  teachers 
have  laboured  all  their  days  at  erecting  what  has 
already  been  proved  a  mere  house  of  cards  ;  and  how 
many  persons  have  been  built  into  the  living  temple 
who  have  brought  no  stability  or  beauty  to  the  build- 
ing. How  careless  often  have  the  builders  been, 
anxious  only  to  have  quantity  to  show,  regardless  of 
quality,  ambitious  to  be  credited  with  largely  extending 
the  size  of  the  Church  apart  from  any  consideration  of 
the  worth  or  worthlessness  of  the  material  added.  As 
in  any  building,  so  in  the  Church,  additional  size  is 
additional  danger  if  the  material  be  not  sound. 

The  soundness  of  the  material  which  has  been  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  Christ  will,  like  all  things  else, 
be  tested.  "The  day  shall  declare  it;"  that  light  of 
Christ's  presence  and  dominance  over  all  things,  that 
hght  which  shall  penetrate  all  human  things  when  our 
true  life  is  entered  on — that  shall  declare  it.  "  The 
fire  shall  try  every  man's  work,  of  what  sort  it  is.  If 
any  man's  work  abide,  he  shall  receive  a  reward.  If 
any  man's  work  be  burned,  he  shall  suffer  loss  ;  but  he 
himself  shall  be  saved,  yet  so  as  by  fire."  The  Corin- 
thians knew  what  a  trial  by  fire  meant.  They  knew 
how  the  flames  had  travelled  over  their  own  city,  con- 
suming all  that  fire  could  kindle  on,  and  leaving  of  the 
shghtly  built  houses  nothing  but  a  charred  and  useless 
timber  here  and  there,  while  the  massive  marbles  stood 
erect  among  the  ruins;  and  the  precious  metals,  even 
though  molten,  were  prized  by  the  conqueror.  Against 
the  fire  no  prayer,  no  appeal,  prevailed.     Its  judgment 


90      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 

and  decisions  were  irreversible ;  wood,  hay,  stubble, 
disappeared:  only  what  was  solid  and  valuable  remained. 
By  such  irreversible  judgment  are  we  and  our  work  to 
be  judged.  We  are  to  enter  into  a  life  in  which  the 
nature  and  character  of  the  work  we  have  done  in  this 
world  shall  bring  upon  it  utter  destruction  or  a  reward- 
ing and  growing  utility.  Fire  simply  burns  up  all  that 
will  burn  and  leaves  what  will  not.  So  shall  the  new 
life  we  are  to  pass  into  absolutely  annihilate  what  is 
not  in  keeping  with  it,  and  leave  only  what  is  useful 
and  congruous.  There  is  no  question  here  of  admit- 
ting explanations,  of  adducing  extenuating  circum- 
stances, of  appealing  to  compassion,  and  so  forth.  It 
is  a  judgment,  and  a  judgment  of  absolute  truth,  which 
takes  things  as  they  actually  are.  The  work  that  has 
been  well  and  wisely  done  will  stand  ;  foolish,  vain, 
and  selfish  work  will  go.  We  are  to  pass  through 
the   fire. 

(  iPaul,  with  his  unfailing  discernment,  accepts  it  as 
a  very  possible  contingency  that  a  Christian  man  "may 
do  poor  work.  In  that  case,  Paul  says,  the  man  will  be 
saved  as  by  fire  ;  his  work  shall  be  burned,  but  himself 
be  scatheless.  He  shall  be  in  the  position  of  a  man 
whose  house  has  been  burnt ;  the  man  is  saved,  but 
his  property,  all  that  he  has  slowly  gathered  round 
him  and  valued  as  the  fruit  of  his  labour,  is  gone.  He 
may  have  received  no  bodily  injury,  but  he  is  so  stripped 
that  he  scarcely  knows  himself,  and  the  whole  thought 
and  toil  of  his  life  seem  to  have  gone  for  nothing.  So, 
says  Paul,  shall  this  and  that  man  pass  into  the  heavenly 
state,  hearing  behind  him  as  he  barely  enters  the 
crash  of  all  he  has  been  building  up  as  it  falls  and 
leaves  for  the  result  of  a  laboiious  life  a  ghastly, 
charred   ruin   and   a   cloud   of  dust.       To    have    been 


iii.  5-23.]     GODS  HUSBANDRY  AND  BUILDING,  91 

useless,  to  have  advanced  Christ's  kingdom  not  at  all, 
to  have  spent  our  life  building  up  a  pretentious  erection 
which  at  last  falls  about  our  ears,  to  come  to  the  end 
and  find  that  not  one  solid  brick  in  the  whole  fabric  is 
of  our  laying,  and  that  the  world  would  have  been 
quite  as  well  wiihout  us — this  must  be  humiliating 
indeed  ;  but  it  is  a  humiliation  which  all  selfish,  worldly, 
and  foolishly  fussy  Christians  are  preparing  for  them- 
selves. To  many  Christians  it  seems  enough  that 
they  be  doing  something.  If  only  they  are  decently 
active,  it  concerns  them  little  that  their  work  is  really 
effecting  no  good,  as  if  they  were  active  rather  for  the 
sake  of  keeping  themselves  warm  in  a  chilling  atmo- 
sphere than  to  accomplish  any  good  purpose.  Work 
done  for  this  world  must  be  such  as  will  stand  inspec- 
tion and  actually  do  the  thing  required.  Christian 
work  should  not  be  less,  but  more,  thorough.  • 

There  is  a  degree  of  carelessness  or  malignity 
sometimes  to  be  found  in  those  who  profess  to  be 
Christian  teachers  which  Paul  does  not  hesitate 
unconditionally  to  doom.  '*  If  any  man  destroy  the 
temple  of  God,  him  shall  God  destroy."  A  teacher 
may  in  various  ways  incur  this  doom.  He  may  in 
guiding  some  one  to  Christ  fit  him  obliquely  to  the 
foundation,  so  that  firm  rest  in  Christ  is  never 
attained  ;  but  the  man  remains  like  a  loose  stone  in 
a  wall,  unsettled  himself  and  unsettling  all  around 
him.  Any  doctrine  which  turns  the  grace  of  God 
into  licence  incurs  this  doom.  To  lift  stones  from  the 
mire  they  have  been  lying  in  and  fit  them  into  the 
temple  is  good  and  right,  but  to  leave  them  un- 
cleansed  and  unpolished  is  to  disfigure  the  temple. 
Any  teaching  that  does  not  recognise  in  Christianity 
the  means  of  becoming  holy,  and  encourages  men  to 


92      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

believe  themselves  Christians  though  they  neither 
have  nor  wish  to  have  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  destroys 
the  temple. 

But  we  are  responsible  as  well  as  our  teachers  for 
the  appearance  we  present  in  God's  temple.  The 
stone  that  is  to  occupy  a  permanent  place  in  a  building 
is  carefully  squared  and  beaten  into  its  place,  and 
its  level  adjusted  with  the  utmost  nicety.  Would  it 
not  make  a  very  obvious  change  in  the  appearance 
and  in  the  strength  of  the  Church  if  every  member 
of  it  were  at  pains  to  set  himself  absolutely  true  to 
Christ  ?  There  is  no  doubt  a  good  deal  of  anxiety 
about  our  relation  to  Christ,  frequent  examining  and 
measuring  of  our  actual  position  ;  but  does  not  this 
too  often  merely  reveal  that  conscience  is  uneasy  ? 
Some  persons  are  prevented  from  resting  satisfactorily 
on  Christ  because  of  some  erroneous  opinion  about 
faith  or  about  the  manner  in  which  the  connection 
is  formed,  or  some  pet  theory  or  crotchet  has  pos- 
sessed the  mind  and  keeps  them  unsettled.  Some 
will  not  rest  on  Christ  until  they  have  such  repentance 
as  they  judge  sufficient;  others  so  rest  on  Him  that 
they  have  no  repentance.  Strange  that  men  will 
so  complicate  the  simplicity  of  Christ,  who  is  the  hand 
of  our  heavenly  Father,  stretched  out  to  lift  us  out 
of  our  sin  and  draw  us  to  Himself!  If  you  wish  God's 
love,  accept  it;  if  you  long  for  holiness,  take  Christ 
as  your  Friend  ;  if  you  see  no  greater  joy  than  to  serve 
in  His  great  cause,  do  His  will  and  follow  Him. 

But,  alas  !  with  some  it  is  no  misunderstanding  that 
prevents  a  close  connection  between  the  soul  and 
Christ,  but  some  worldly  purpose  or  some  entangling 
and  deeply  cherished  sin.  The  foundation  stone  is 
as  a  polished  slab  of  marble,  having  its  upper  surface 


iii.  5-23]     GOD'S  HUSBANDRY  AND  BUILDING.  93 

smooth  as  a  mirror,  whereas  we  are  Hke  stones  that 
have  been  lying  on  the  seashore,  encrusted  with  shells 
and  lichens,  drilled  with  holes,  grown  all  round  and 
round  with  unsightly  inequalities  ;  and  if  we  are  to 
rest  with  entire  stability  on  the  foundation,  these 
excrescences  must  be  removed.  Even  a  small  one 
at  one  point  is  enough  to  prevent  close  adhesion.  One 
sin  consciously  retained,  one  command  or  expression 
of  Christ's  will  unresponded  to,  makes  our  whole 
connection  with  Him  unsettled  and  insecure,  our  con- 
fessions and  repentances  untrue  and  hardening,  our 
prayers  hesitating  and  insincere,  our  love  for  Christ 
hollow,  our  life  inconsistent,  vacillating,  and  un- 
profitable. 

And  more  must  be  done  even  after  we  are  securely 
fitted  into  our  place.  Stones  often  look  well  enough 
when  first  built  in,  but  soon  lose  their  colour ;  and 
their  surface  and  fine  edges  crumble  and  shale  ofi', 
so  that  they  need  to  be  constantly  looked  to.  So  do 
the  stones  in  God's  temple  get  tarnished  and  dis- 
coloured by  exposure.  One  sin  after  another  is  allowed 
to  stain  the  conscience;  one  little  corruption  after 
another  settles  on  the  character,  and  eats  out  its  fine- 
ness, and  when  once  the  fair,  clean  stone  is  no  longer 
unsullied,  we  think  it  of  little  consequence  to  be  scrupu- 
lous. Then  the  weather  tells  upon  us  :  the  ordinary 
atmosphere  of  this  life,  with  its  constant  damp  of 
worldly  care  and  its  occasional  storms  of  loss,  and 
disappointment,  and  social  collisions,  and  domestic 
embroilment,  eats  out  the  heavenly  temper  from  our 
character,  and  leaves  its  edges  ragged ;  and  the  man 
becomes  soured  and  irritable,  and  the  surface  of  him, 
all  that  meets  the  casual  eye,  is  rough  and  broken. 

Above  all,  do  not  many  Christian  persons  seem  to 


94        THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

think  it  enough  to  have  attained  a  place  in  the  building, 
and,  after  spending  a  little  thought  and  trouble  on 
entering  the  Christian  life,  take  no  step  onwards 
during  the  whole  remainder  of  their  lives  ?  But  it 
is  in  God's  building  as  in  highly  ornamented  buildings 
generally.  The  stones  are  not  all  sculptured  before 
they  are  fitted  into  their  places ;  but  they  are  built  in 
rough-hewn,  so  that  the  building  may  proceed  :  and 
then  at  leisure  the  device  proper  to  each  is  carved 
upon  it.  This  is  the  manner  of  God's  building.  Long 
after  a  man  has  been  set  in  the  Church  of  Christ,  God 
hews  and  carves  him  to  the  shape  He  designs;  but 
we,  being  not  dead,  but  living,  stones,  have  it  in  our 
power  to  mar  the  beauty  of  God's  design,  and  indeed 
so  distort  it  that  the  result  is  a  grotesque  and  hideous 
monster,  belonging  to  no  world,  neither  of  God  nor 
of  man.  If  we  let  a  thousand  other  influences  mould 
and  fashion  us,  God's  design  must  necessarily  be  spoiled. 
''The  folly  of  partisanship  and  sectarianism  is  finally 
exhibited  in  the  words  "  Let  no  man  glory  in  men.  For 
all  things  are  yours,  whether  Paul,  or  Apollos,  or 
Cephas."  The  man  who  held  to  Paul  and  would  learn 
nothing  from  Apollos  or  Peter  w^as  defrauding  himself 
of  his  rights.  It  has  been  the  weakness  of  Christians 
in  all  ages,  and  never  more  than  in  our  own,  to  see 
good  in  only  one  aspect  of  truth  and  listen  to  no  form 
of  teaching  but  one.  The  Broad  Churchman  despises 
the  traditionalist ;  the  Evangelical  gathers  up  his  skirts 
at  the  approach  of  a  Bread  Churchman.  Calvinist  and 
Arminian  stand  at  daggers  drawn.  Each  limits  himself 
to  his  own  fortress,  which  he  thinks  he  can  defend, 
and  starves  himself  on  siege  rations  while  the  fields 
wave  white  with  grain  outside.  The  eye  is  constructed 
to  sweep  round  a  wide  range  of  vision ;  but  men  put 


iii.  5-23.]     GOD'S  HUSBANDRY  AND  BUILDING.  95 


on  blinkers,  and  decline  even  to  look  at  anything  which 
dees  not  lie  directly  in  the  line  of  sight.  We  know- 
that  to  confine  ourselves  to  one  form  of  food  induces 
poverty  of  blood  and  disease,  and  yet  we  fancy  a 
healthy  spiritual  life  can  be  maintained  only  by  con- 
fining ourselves  to  one  form  of  doctrine  and  one  way 
of  looking  at  universal  truth.  To  the  Evangelical  who 
shrinks  with  horror  from  liberal  teaching,  and  to  the 
advanced  thinker  who  turns  with  contempt  from  the 
Evangelical,  Paul  would  say.  Ye  do  yourselves  a  WTong 
by  Hstening  to  one  form  of  the  truth  only ;  every 
teacher  who  declares  what  he  himself  lives  on  has 
something  to  teach  you ;  to  despise  or  neglect  any 
form  of  Christian  teaching  is  so  far  to  impoverish 
yourselves.  *'  All  things  are  yours,"  not  this  teacher 
or  that,  in  whom  you  glory,  but  all  teachers  of  Christ.  I 
His  own  expression,  "  all  things  are  yours,"  suggests 
to  Paul  the  whole  wealth  of  the  Christian,  for  whom 
exist  not  only  all  those  who  have  striven  to  unfold  the 
significance  of  the  Christian  revelation,  but  all  things 
else,  whether  "the  world,  or  Hfe,  or  death,  or  things 
present,  or  things  to  come."  As  it  is  true  of  all 
teachers,  of  however  commanding  genius,  that  the 
Church  does  not  exist  for  them  that  they  may  have 
a  field  for  thtir  genius,  and  followers  to  applaud  and 
represent  them,  but  that  they  exist  for  the  Church, 
their  genius  being  used  for  the  advancement  of  the 
spiritual  life  of  this  and  that  unknown  and  hidden  soul ; 
so  is  it  true  of  all  things, — of  life  and  all  its  laws,  of 
death  and  all  it  leads  to, — that  these  are  ordained  of 
God  to  minister  to  the  growth  of  His  children.  This 
was  the  regal  attitude  which  Paul  himself  assumed  and 
maintained  towards  all  events  and  the  whole  world  of 
created  things.    He  was  incapable  of  defeat.     The  out- 


96      THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

rages  and  deaths  he  endured,  he  bore  as  proofs  of  the 
truth  of  his  gospel.  The  storms  of  ill-will  and  persecution 
he  everywhere  encountered,  he  knew  were  only  bring- 
ing him  and  his  gospel  more  rapidly  to  all  the  world. 
And  when  he  looked  at  last  on  the  sword  of  the  Roman 
executioner,  he  recognised  it  with  joy  as  the  instrument 
which  by  one  sharp  blow  was  to  burst  his  fetters  and 
set  him  free  to  boundless  life  and  the  full  knowledge 
of  his  Lord.  The  same  inheritance  belongs  to  every 
one  who  has  faith  to  take  it.  *'A11  things  are  yours." 
The  whole  course  of  this  world  and  all  its  particular 
incidents,  the  complete  range  of  human  experience  from 
first  to  last,  including  all  we  shrink  from  and  fear, — all 
are  for  the  good  of  Christ's  people.  What  thoughts 
flash  from  this  man's  mind.  How  his  words  still 
entrance  and  lift  and  animate  the  soul.  "  All  things 
are  ours."  The  catastrophes  of  life  that  seem  finally 
to  blot  out  hope,  the  wild  elemental  forces  in  whose 
presence  frail  man  is  as  the  moth,  the  unknown  future 
of  the  physical  world,  the  certain  death  that  awaits 
every  man  and  listens  to  no  appeal,  all  things  that 
naturally  discourage  and  compel  us  to  feel  our  weakness, 
— yes,  says  Paul,  all  these  things  are  yours,  serving  your 
highest  good,  bringing  you  on  towaids  your  eternal 
joy,  more  certainly  than  the  things  you  select  and  buy, 
or  win,  and  cherish  as  your  own.  You  are  free  men, 
supreme  over  all  created  things,  for  "  ye  are  Christ's," 
you  belong  to  Him  who  rules  all,  and  loves  you  as 
His  own ;  and  above  Christ  and  His  rule  there  is  no 
adverse  will  that  can  rob  you  of  any  good,  for  as  ye 
are  Christ's,  cherished  by  Him,  so  is  Christ  God's, 
and  the  supreme  will  that  governs  all,  governs  all  in 
the  interests  of  Christ. 


THE  MINISTRY. 


"  Let  a  man  so  account  of  us,  as  of  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and 
stewards  of  the  mj-steries  of  God,  Moreover  it  is  required  in 
stewards,  that  a  man  be  found  faithful.  But  with  me  it  is  a  very 
small  thing  that  I  should  be  judged  of  you,  or  of  man's  judgment: 
yea,  I  judge  not  mine  own  self.  For  I  know  nothing  by  myself;  yet 
am  I  not  hereby  justified  :  but  he  that  judgeth  me  is  the  Lord. 
Therefore  judge  nothing  before  the  time,  until  the  Lord  come,  who 
both  will  bring  to  light  the  hidden  things  of  darkness,  and  will  make 
manifest  the  counsels  of  the  hearts  :  and  then  shall  every  man  have 
praise  of  God.  And  these  things,  brethren,  I  have  in  a  figure 
transferred  to  myself  and  to  ApoUos  for  your  sakes;  that  ye  might 
learn  in  us  not  to  think  of  men  above  that  which  is  written,  that  no 
one  of  you  be  puffed  up  for  one  against  another.  For  who  maketh 
thee  to  differ  from  another  ?  and  what  hast  thou  that  thou  didst  not 
receive  ?  now  if  thou  didst  receive  it,  why  dost  thou  glory„  as  if  thou 
hadst  not  received  it  ?  Now  ye  are  full,  now  ye  are  rich,  ye  have 
reigned  as  kings  without  us  :  and  I  would  to  God  ye  did  reign,  that 
we  also  might  reign  with  you.  For  I  think  that  God  hath  set  forth 
us  the  apostles  last,  as  it  were  appointed  to  death  :  for  we  are  made 
a  spectacle  unto  the  world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men.  We  are 
fools  for  Christ's  sake,  but  ye  are  wise  in  Christ ;  we  are  weak,  but 
ye  are  strong;  ye  are  honourable,  but  we  are  despised.  Even  unto 
this  present  hour  we  both  hunger,  and  thirst,  and  are  naked,  and 
are  buffeted,  and  have  no  certain  dwcllingplace  :  and  labour,  working 
with  our  own  hands :  being  reviled,  we  bless ;  being  persecuted, 
we  suffer  it :  being  defamed,  we  intreat :  we  are  made  as  the  filth 
of  the  earth,  and  are  the  offscouiing  of  all  things  unto  this  day.  I 
write  not  these  things  to  shame  you,  but  as  my  beloved  sons  I  warn 
you.  For  though  ye  have  ten  thousand  instructers  in  Christ,  yet 
have  ye  not  many  fathers :  for  in  Christ  Jesus  I  have  begotten  you 
through  the  gospel.  "Wherefore  I  beseech  you,  be  ye  followers  of 
me." — I  CoR.  iv.  l-l6. 


VII. 

THE  MINISTRY, 

SO  keenly  alive  is  Paul  to  the  danger  and  folly  of 
party-spirit  in  the  Church,  that  he  has  still  one 
more  word  of  rebuke  to  utter.  He  has  shown  the 
Corinthians  that  to  give  their  faith  to  one  teacher, 
and  shut  their  ears  to  every  other  form  of  truth  than 
that  which  he  delivers,  is  to  impoverish  and  defraud 
themselves.  All  teachers  are  theirs,  and  are  sent,  not 
to  win  disciples  to  themselves,  who  may  spread  their 
fame  and  reflect  credit  on  their  talents,  but  to  serve 
the  people,  and  be  merged  in  self-obliterating  toil.  The 
preachers,  Paul  tells  them,  exist  for  the  Church :  not 
the  Church  for  the  preachers.  The  people  are  the 
primary  consideration,  the  main  end  to  which  the 
preachers  are  subordinate.  The  mistake  often  made 
in  things  civil,  that  the  people  exist  for  the  king,  not 
the  king  for  the  people,  is  made  also  in  things  ecclesi- 
astical, and  has,  in  some  instances,  attained  such 
dimensions  that  the ''Church"  means  the  clergy,  not 
the  laity,  and  that  when  a  man  enters  the  ministry 
he  is  said  to  enter  the  Church, — as  if  already  he  were 
not  in  it  as  a  layman. 

Paul  now  proceeds  to  demonstrate  the  futility  of  the 


loo     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE  CORINTHIANS. 

judgment  passed  upon  their  teachers  by  the  Corinthians. 
Paul  and  the  rest  were  servants  of  Christ,  stewards 
sent  by  Him  to  dispense  to  others  what  he  had 
entrusted  to  them.  The  question  therefore  was,  were 
they  faithful,  did  they  dispense  what  they  had  received 
in  conformity  with  Christ's  purpose  ?  The  question 
was  not,  were  they  eloquent,  were  they  philosophical, 
were  they  learned  ?  Criticism  no  preacher  need 
expect  to  escape.  Sometimes  one  might  suppose 
sermons  were  of  no  other  use  than  to  furnish  material 
for  a  little  discussion  and  pleasant  exercise  of  the 
critical  faculty.  Every  one  considers  himself  capable 
of  this  form  of  criticism,  and  once  a  sermon  has 
been  sorted  and  labelled  as  of  this,  that,  or  the  other 
quality,  it  is  too  often  put  permanently  aside.  In  such 
criticism,  Paul  reminds  us,  it  is  a  great  matter  to  bear 
in  mind  that  what  has  no  great  attraction  for  us  may 
yet  serve  some  good  purpose.  The  gifts  dispensed  by 
Christ  are  various.  The  influence  of  some  ministers 
is  most  felt  in  private,  while  others  are  shy  and  stiff, 
and  can  only  utter  themselves  freely  in  the  pulpit.  In 
the  pulpit  again  various  gifts  appear,  some  having 
good  nerve  and  a  ready  and  felicitous  address  which 
reaches  the  multitude ;  while  others  have  more  power 
of  thought,  and  a  finer  literary  gift,  or  a  sympathetic 
manner  of  handling  peculiarities  of  spiritual  experience. 
Who  shall  say  which  of  these  styles  is  most  edifying 
to  the  Church  ?  And  who  shall  say  which  teacher 
is  most  faithfully  serving  his  Master  ?  Who  shall 
determine  whether  this  preacher  or  that  is  the  better 
steward,  most  truly  seeking  his  Lord's  glory,  ajid 
careless  of  his  own  ?  May  it  not  be  expected  that 
when  the  things  at  present  hidden  in  darkness,  the 
motives  and  thoughts  of  the  heart,  are  brought  to  light 


iv.  1-16.]  THE  MINISTRY. 


in  Christ's  judgment,  many  that  are  first  shall  be  last, 
and  the  last  first  ? 

He  who  is  conscious  that  he  is  the  servant  of  Christ 
and  must  give  account  to  Him,  can  always  say  with 
Paul,  "  It  is  a  very  small  thing  that  I  should  be  judged 
of  man's  judgment,"  whether  for  acquittal  and  applause 
or  condemnation  and  abuse.  He  who  utters  what  is 
peculiar  to  himself  must  expect  to  be  misjudged  by 
those  who  do  not  look  at  things  from  his  point  of  view. 
A  teacher  who  thinks  for  himself  and  is  not  a  mere 
echo  of  other  men,  finds  himself  compelled  to  utter 
truths  which  he  knows  will  be  misunderstood  by 
many ;  but  so  long  as  he  is  conscious  that  he  is  faith- 
fully delivering  what  has  been  made  known  to  himself, 
the  condemnation  of  the  many  can  trouble  him  very 
little  or  not  at  ail.  It  is  to  his  own  Master  he  stands 
or  falls ;  and  if  he  feels  sure  that  he  is  doing  his 
Master's  will,  he  may  regret  the  opposition  of  men, 
but  he  can  neither  be  greatly  astonished  nor  greatly 
perturbed  by  it.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  the  approval 
and  applause  of  men  come  to  him  only  as  a  reminder 
that  there  is  no  finality  in  man's  judgment,  and  that 
it  is  only  Christ's  approval  which  avails  to  give 
permanent  satisfaction.  A  sympathetic  audience  every 
teacher  needs,  but  general  approval  will  be  his  in  the 
inverse  ratio  of  the  individuality  of  his  teaching. 

In  his  whole  discussion  of  this  subject  Paul  has  named 
only  himself  and  Apollos,  but  he  means  that  what  he 
has  said  of  them  should  be  applied  to  all.  "  These 
things  I  have  in  a  figure  transferred  to  myself  and  to 
Apollos  for  your  sakes  ;  that  in  us  ye  might  learn 
not  to  think  of  men  above  that  which  is  written,  that 
no  one  of  you  be  puffed  up  for  one  against  another." 
But  great  difficulty  has  always   been   experienced   in 


102     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

tracing  the  similarities  and  distinctions  which  exist 
between  the  Apostles  and  the  ordinary  ministry  of  the 
Church,  and  had  Paul  been  writing  this  epistle  in  our 
own  day  he  would  have  felt  himself  compelled  to 
speak  more  definitely  on  these  points.  For  what  makes 
union  hopeless  in  Christendom  at  present  is  not  that 
parties  are  formed  round  individual  leaders,  but  that 
Churches  are  based  on  diametrically  opposed  opinions 
regarding  the  ministry  itself.  The  Church  of  Rome 
unchurches  all  the  rest,  and  defends  her  action  by  the 
simplest  process  of  reasoning.  There  can  be  no  true 
Church,  she  says,  where  there  is  no  forgiveness  of  sins 
and  no  sacraments,  and  there  can  be  no  forgiveness 
and  no  sacraments  where  there  are  no  true  ministers 
to  administer  them,  and  there  are  no  true  ministers 
save  those  who  can  trace  their  orders  to  the  Apostles. 
This  theory  of  the  ministry  proceeds  on  the  idea  that 
the  Apostles  received  from  Christ  a  commission  to 
exercise  the  apostolic  office,  and  along  with  it  a  deposit 
of  grace,  with  powers  to  communicate  this  to  those  who 
should  succeed  them.  This  deposit  of  grace  derived 
from  Christ  Himself  has  been  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation,  through  a  line  of  consecrated 
persons,  each  member  of  the  series  receiving  at  his 
ordination,  and  irrespective  of  his  moral  character,  both 
the  commission  and  the  powers  which  belonged  to  his 
predecessor  in  office. 

This  theory  of  the  efficacy  of  ministration  in  the 
Church,  with  its  entirely  external  account  of  its  trans- 
mission, is  but  one  manifestation  of  the  old  superstition 
that  confounds  the  outward  symbol  of  Christian  grace 
with  that  grace  itself.  It  is  a  survival  from  a  time  in 
which  religion  was  treated  as  a  kind  of  magic,  in  which 
it  was  only  needful  to  observe  the  right  words  of  in- 


iv.  i-i6.]  THE  MINISTRY,  103 

c^ntation  and  the  right  outward  order.  Even  supposing 
that  any  priest  now  aHve  could  trace  his  orders  back 
to  the  Apostles,  which  no  priest  can,  is  it  credible  that 
the  mere  observance  of  an  outward  form  should  secure 
the  transmission  of  the  highest  spiritual  functions  to 
those  who  may  or  may  not  have  any  spirituality  of 
mind  ?  However  much  grace  the  ordaining  bishop 
may  himself  possess,  however  many  of  the  qualifications 
of  a  good  minister  of  Christ  he  may  have,  he  can 
transmit  none  of  these  by  the  laying  on  of  his  hands. 
He  can  confer  the  external  authority  in  the  Church 
which  belongs  to  the  office  to  which  he  ordains,  but 
he  cannot  communicate  that  which  fits  a  man  to  use 
this  authority.  The  laying  on  of  hands  is  the  outward 
symbol  of  the  bestowal  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  it  does 
not  confer  that  Spirit,  which  is  given,  not  by  man,  but 
by  Christ  alone.  The  laying  on  of  hands  is  a  fit 
symbol  to  use  at  ordination  when  those  who  use  it 
have  satisfied  themselves  that  the  ordained  person  is 
in  possession  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  the  expression  of 
their  reasonable  belief  that  the  Spirit  is  given. 

In  some  Churches  reaction  against  the  theory  of 
apostolical  succession  has  led  men  to  distrust  and 
repudiate  ordination  altogether,  and  to  maintain  that 
any  man  may  preach  who  can  get  people  to  listen  to 
him,  and  may  administer  the  sacraments  to  any  who 
apply  for  them.  No  outward  recognition  by  the  Church 
is  deemed  necessary.  The  middle  course  is  safer, 
which  acknowledges  not  only  the  supreme  necessity  of 
an  inward  call,  but  also  the  expediency  of  an  outward 
call  by  the  Church.  By  an  inward  call  it  is  meant 
that  it  is  the  inward  and  spiritual  fitness  of  any  person 
which  constitutes  his  main  right  of  entrance  to  the 
ministry.     There  are  certain  mental  and  moral  endow- 


I04     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 

ments,  certain  circumstances,  and  educational  advan- 
tages, personal  inclinations  and  leanings,  which,  when 
they  meet  in  a  boy  or  young  man,  point  him  out  as 
suited  for  the  work  of  the  ministry.  The  evidence 
that  Christ  means  that  any  one  should  take  office  in 
His  Church, — in  other  words,  calls  him  to  office, — is  the 
fact  that  He  bestows  on  that  person  the  gifts  which 
fit  him  for  it. 

But  besides  this  inward  persuasion  wrought  in  the 
mind  of  the  individual,  and  which  constitutes  the  in- 
ward call,  there  must  be  an  outward  call  also  by  the 
Church's  recognition  of  fitness  and  communication  of 
authority.  Any  man  who  at  his  own  instance  and  oni; 
his  own  authority  gathers  a  congregation  and  dis-lj 
penses  the  sacraments  is  guilty  of  schism.  Even^ 
Barnabas  and  Paul  were  ordained  by  the  Church. 
As  in  the  State  a  prince  though  legitimate  does  not 
succeed  to  the  throne  without  formal  consecration  and 
coronation,  so  in  the  Church  there  is  needed  a  formal 
recognition  of  the  title  which  any  one  claims  to  office. 
It  is  not  the  consecration  which  constitutes  the  prince's 
right ;  that  he  already  possesses  by  birth  :  so,  neither 
is  it  the  Church's  ordination  which  qualifies  and 
entitles  the  minister  to  his  office  ;  this  he  already  has 
by  the  gift  of  Christ ;  but  recognition  by  the  Church 
is  needed  to  give  him  due  authority  to  exercise  the 
functions  of  his  office.  It  is  a  matter  of  expediency 
and  of  order.  It  is  calculated  to  maintain  the  unity 
of  the  Church.  Admission  to  the  ministry  being 
regulated  by  those  already  in  office,  schisms  are  less 
likely  to  occur.  Ordination  has  been  a  bulwark 
against  fanaticism,  against  foolish  private  opinions  and 
doctrines,  against  divisive  courses  in  worship  and  in 
organization.      If  the  Church  was  to  be  kept  together 


iv.  1-16.]  THE  MINISTRY,  105 

and  to  grow  as  a  consistent  whole,  it  was  necessary 
that  those  already  in  office  should  be  allowed  to 
scrutinize  the  claims  of  aspirants  to  office,  and  should 
not  have  their  order  invaded,  their  work  thwarted 
and  obstructed,  their  doctrine  denied  and  contradicted 
by  every  one  who  might  profess  to  have  an  inward 
call  to  the  ministry. 

It  would  therefore  seem  to  be  every  one's  duty  to 
inquire,  before  he  gives  himself  to  another  profession 
or  business,  whether  Christ  is  not  claiming  him  to 
serve  in  His  Church.  The  qualifications  which  con- 
stitute a  call  to  the  ministry  are  such  as  these:  an 
interest  in  men,  in  their  ways,  and  habits,  and  charac- 
ter; a  social  disposition,  inclining  you  to  mix  with 
other  people,  to  take  pleasure  in  their  thoughts  and 
feelings,  to  be  of  service  to  them,  to  talk  frankly  with 
them ;  a  liking  for  reading,  if  not  for  hard  study  ;  some 
capacity  for  thinking  and  arranging  your  thoughts 
and  expressing  them,  which,  however,  is  to  so  great  an 
extent  the  result  of  study  and  practice  that  you  may 
find  it  impossible  to  say  whether  you  have  it  or  not. 
There  are  negative  qualifications  equally  important, 
such  as  an  indifference  to  money-making,  a  shrinking 
from  the  eager  competition  and  hurry  of  a  business 
life.  And,  above  all,  there  are  the  deeper  and  essential 
qualifications  which  are  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit's  sancti- 
fying energy  :  some  genuine  sense  of  your  indebtedness 
to  Christ ;  a  strong  desire  to  serve  Him  ;  an  ambition 
to  preach  Him,  to  proclaim  His  worth,  to  invite  men 
to  appreciate  and  love  Him.  If  you  have  these  desires, 
and  if  you  would  fain  be  of  use  in  things  spiritual  to 
your  fellow-men,  then  it  would  seem  that  you  are 
called  by  Christ  to  the  ministry.  I  do  not  say  that  all 
ministers  are  so  qualified,  but  only  that  any  one  who 


io6     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

is  so  qualified  should  be  careful  how  he  chooses  some 
other  calling  in  preference  to  the  ministry. 

Paul  concludes  this  portion  of  his  Epistle  with  a 
pathetic  comparison  of  his  condition  as  an  Apostle 
with  the  condition  of  those  in  Corinth  who  were 
glorying  in  this  or  that  teacher.  They  spoke  as  if 
they  needed  his  instructions  no  more,  and  as  if  already 
they  had  attained  the  highest  Christian  advantages. 
*'  Already  ye  are  full ;  already  ye  are  rich  :  ye  have 
reigned  as  kings  without  us."  They  behave  as  if  all 
the  trial  of  the  Christian  life  were  over.  With  the 
frothy  spirit  of  young  converts,  they  are  full  of  a 
triumph  which  they  despise  Paul  for  not  inculcating. 
By  one  leap  they  had  attained,  or  thought  they  had 
attained,  a  superiority  to  all  disturbance,  and  to  all 
trial,  and  to  all  need  of  teachmg,  which,  in  fact,  as 
Paul's  own  experience  taught  him,  could  only  be 
attained  in  another  life.  While  they  thus  triumphed, 
he  who  had  begotten  them  in  Christ  was  being  treated 
as  the  ofifscouring  and  filth  of  the  world. 

Paul  can  only  compare  himself  and  the  other 
Apostles  to  those  gladiators  who  were  condemned  to 
die,  and  who  came  into  the  arena  last,  after  the 
spectators  had  been  sated  with  other  exhibitions  and 
bloodless  performances.  ^'  I  think  that  God  hath  set 
forth  us  the  Apostles  last,  as  it  were  appointed  to 
death.  For  we  are  made  a  spectacle  unto  the  world, 
and  to  angels  and  to  men."  They  came  into  the 
arena  knowing  they  should  never  leave  it  alive,  that 
they  were  there  for  the  purpose  of  enduring  the  worst 
their  enemies  could  do  to  them.  It  was  no  fight  with 
buttoned  foils  Paul  and  the  rest  were  engaged  in. 
While  others  sat  comfortably  looking  on,  with  curtains 
to  shade  them  from  the  heat  and  refreshments  to  save 


Iv.  I- 1 6.]  THE  MINISTRY.  107 

them  from  exhaustion  or  from  faintness  at  the  sight 
of  blood,  they  were  in  the  arena,  exposed  to  wounds, 
ill-usage,  and  death.  They  had  as  little  hope  of  retir- 
ing to  live  a  quiet  life  as  the  gladiators  who  had  said 
farewell  to  their  friends  and  saluted  the  Emperor  as 
those  about  to  die.  Life  became  no  easier,  the  world 
no  kinder,  to  Paul  as  time  went  on.  "  Even  unto  this 
present  hour  of  writing,"  he  says,  *'  we  both  hunger  and 
thirst,  and  are  naked,  and  are  buffeted,  and  have  no 
certain  dwelling-place."  Here  is  the  finest  mind,  the 
noblest  spirit,  on  earth ;  and  this  is  how  he  is  treated  : 
driven  from  place  to  place,  thrust  aside  as  interrupting 
the  proper  work  of  men,  passed  by  with  a  sneer  at  his 
rags,  refused  the  commonest  charity,  paid  for  his  loving 
words  in  blows  and  insolence.  And  yet  he  goes  on 
with  his  work,  and  lets  nothing  interrupt  that.  "Being 
reviled,  we  bless  ;  being  persecuted,  we  suffer  it ;  being 
defamed,  we  entreat."  Nay,  it  is  a  life  which  he  is  so 
far  from  giving  up  himself,  that  he  will  call  to  it  the 
easy-going  Christians  of  Corinth.  "  I  beseech  you,"  he 
sa3's,  *'  be  ye  followers  of  me." 

And  if  the  contrast  between  Paul's  precarious  and 
self-sacrificing  life  and  the  luxurious  and  self-com- 
placent life  of  the  Corinthians  might  be  expected  to 
shame  them  into  some  vigorous  Christian  service,  a 
similar  contrast  candidly  considered  may  accomplish 
some  good  results  in  us.  Already  the  Corinthians 
were  accepting  that  pernicious  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity which  looks  upon  it  as  merely  a  new  luxury, 
that  they  who  are  already  comfortable  in  all  outward 
respects  may  be  comforted  in  spirit  as  well  and 
purge  their  minds  from  all  anxieties,  questionings, 
and  strivings.  They  recognised  how  happy  a  thing 
it  is  to  be  forgiven,  to  be  at  peace  with  God,  to  have 


lo8     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

a  sure  hope  of  life  everlasting.  For  them  the  battle 
was  over,  the  conquest  won,  the  throne  ascended. 
As  yet  they  had  not  caught  a  glimpse  of  what  is 
involved  in  becoming  holy  as  Christ  is  holy,  nor  had 
steadily  conceived  in  their  minds  the  profound  inward 
change  which  must  pass  upon  them.  As  yet  it  was 
enough  for  them  that  they  were  called  to  be  God's 
children,  provided  for  by  a  heavenly  Father;  and 
Christ's  own  view  of  life  and  of  men  had  not  yet 
possessed  or  even  dawned  upon  their  soul,  causing 
them  to  feel  that  until  they  could  live  for  others  they 
had  no  true  life. 

Are  there  none  still  who  listen  to  Christianity  rather 
as  a  voice  soothing  their  fears  than  as  a  bugle 
summoning  them  to  conflict,  who  are  satisfied  if 
through  the  Gospel  they  are  enabled  to  comfort  their 
own  soul,  and  who  do  not  yet  respond  to  Christ's  call 
to  live  under  the  power  of  that  Spirit  of  His  which 
prompted  Him  to  all  sacrifice  ?  Paul  does  not 
summon  the  whole  Church  to  be  homeless,  destitute, 
comfortless,  outcast  from  all  joy ;  and  yet  there  is 
meaning  in  his  words  when  he  says,  "  Be  ye  followers 
of  me."  He  means  that  there  is  not  one  standard  of 
duty  for  him  and  another  for  us.  All  is  wrong  with 
us  until  we  be  made  somehow  to  recognise,  and  make 
room  in  our  life  for  the  recognition,  that  we  have  no 
right  to  be  lapping  ourselves  round  with  all  manner 
of  selfish  aggrandizement  while  Paul  is  driven  through 
life  with  scarcely  one  day's  bread  provided,  that  in 
some  way  intelligible  to  our  own  conscience  we  must 
approve  ourselves  to  be  his  followers,  and  that  no 
right  is  secured  to  any  class  of  Christians  to  stand 
selfishly  aloof  from  the  common  Christian  cause.  If 
we  be  Christ's,  as  Paul  was,  it  must  inevitably  come 


iv.  i-i6.]  THE  MINISTRY.  109 

to  this  with  us  :  that  we  cordially  yield  to  Him  all  we 
are  and  have  ;  our  very  selves,  with  all  our  tastes  and 
aptitudes  and  with  all  we  have  made  by  our  toil ;  our 
life,  with  all  its  fruits,  we  gladly  yield  to  Him.  If  our 
hearts  be  His,  this  is  inevitable  and  delightful ;  unless 
they  be  so,  it  is  impossible,  and  seems  extravagant. 
It  is  vain  to  say  to  a  man.  Serve  only  yourself  in 
life,  seek  only  to  make  a  reputation  for  yourself  and 
gather  comforts  round  yourself,  and  make  it  the  aim  of 
your  life  to  be  comfortable  and  respectable — it  is  vain 
to  bid  a  man  thus  Umit  and  impoverish  his  life  if  at  the 
same  time  you  show  him  a  person  so  attracting  human 
allegiance  as  Christ  does,  and  so  opening  to  men  wider 
and  eternal  aims  as  He  does,  and  if  you  show  him  a 
cause  so  kindling  every  right  ambition  as  Christ's 
cause  does. 

It  was  Christ's  own  self-sacrifice  that  threw  such  a 
spell  over  the  Apostles  and  gave  them  so  new  a  feeling 
towards  their  fellow-men  and  so  new  an  estimate  of  their 
deepest  needs.  After  seeing  how  Christ  lived,  they 
could  never  again  justify  themselves  in  living  for  self. 
After  seeing  His  regardlessness  of  bodily  comfort.  His 
superiority  to  traditional  necessities  and  customary 
luxuries,  after  witnessing  how  veritably  He  was  but 
passing  through  this  v,^orld,  and  used  it  as  the  stage  on 
which  He  might  serve  God  and  men,  and  counted  His 
life  best  spent  in  giving  it  for  others,  they  could  not 
settle  down  into  the  old  life  and  aim  only  at  passing 
comfortably,  reputably,  and  religiously  through  it. 
That  view  of  life  was  made  for  ever  impossible  to 
them.  The  life  of  Christ  had  made  a  rew  way  for 
itself  into  a  new  region,  and  the  horizon  rent  by  the 
passage  never  again  closed  to  them.  That  life  became 
the  only  spiritual  reality  to  them.     And  it  is  because 


no     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

we  are  so  sunk  in  self-seeking  and  worldliness,  and 
so  blinded  by  the  customs  and  traditional  ideas  about 
spending  life,  about  acquitting  ourselves  well  and  making 
a  name,  about  earning  a  competence,  about  everything 
which  turns  the  regard  in  upon  self  instead  of  outwards 
upon  objects  worthy  of  our  exertion — it  is  therefore 
that  we  continue  so  unapostolic,  so  unprofitable,  so 
unchanged. 

It  might  encourage  us  to  bring  our  life  more  nearly 
into  the  line  of  Paul's  were  we  to  see  clearly  that  the 
cause  he  served  is  really  inclusive  of  all  that  is  worth 
working  for.  We  can  scarcely  apprehend  this  with 
any  clearness  without  feeling  some  enthusiasm  for  it. 
The  kind  of  devotedness  expected  of  the  Christian  is 
illustrated  in  the  Hves  of  all  men  of  any  force  of 
character;  the  Christian's  devotedness  is  only  given 
to  a  larger  and  more  reasonable  object.  There  have 
been  statesmen  and  patriots,  and  there  still  are  such, 
who,  though  possibly  not  absolutely  devoid  of  some 
taint  of  selfish  ambition,  are  yet  in  the  main  devoted 
to  their  country  ;  its  interests  are  continually  on  their 
mind  and  heart,  their  time  is  given  wholly  to  it,  and 
their  own  personal  tastes  and  pursuits  are  held  in 
abeyance  and  abandoned  to  make  room  for  more 
important  labour.  You  have  seen  men  become  so 
enamoured  of  a  cause  that  they  will  literally  sell  all 
they  have  to  forward  it,  and  who  obviously  have  it  on 
their  hearts  by  night  and  by  day,  who  live  for  that  and 
for  nothing  else ;  you  can  dv^tect  as  often  as  you  meet 
them  that  the  real  aim  and  object  of  their  life  is  to 
promote  that  cause.  Some  new  movement,  political  or 
ecclesiastical,  some  literary  scheme,  some  fresh  enter- 
prise of  benevolence,  some  new  commercial  idea,  or  no 
matter  what  it  is,  you  have  seen  again  and  again  that 


iv.  i-i6.]  THE  MINISTRY.  HI 

men  throw  themselves  so  thoroughly  into  such  causes 
that  they  cannot  be  said  to  be  Hving  for  themselves. 
They  v^^ill  part  vi^ith  time,  with  property,  with  other 
important  objects,  with  health,  even  with  life  itself, 
for  the  sake  of  their  cherished,  chosen  cause.  And 
when  such  a  cause  is  worthy,  such  as  the  reforma- 
tion of  prison  discipline,  or  the  emancipation  of  slaves, 
or  the  hberating  of  an  oppressed  nation,  the  men 
who  adopt  it  seem  to  lead  the  only  lives  which  have 
some  semblance  of  glory  in  them  ;  and  the  sacrifices 
they  make,  the  obl<}quy  they  incur,  the  toils  they  endure, 
make  the  heart  burn  and  swell  as  we  hear  of  them. 
Every  one  instinctively  acknowledges  that  such  self- 
forgetful  and  heroic  lives  are  the  right  and  model  hves 
for  all.  What  a  man  does  for  himself  is  jealously 
examined,  criticised,  and  passed  at  the  most  with  an 
exclamation  of  wonder ;  but  what  he  does  for  others 
is  welcomed  with  acclamation  as  an  honour  to  our 
common  humanity.  So  long  as  a  man  labours  merely 
for  himself,  to  win  himself  a  name,  to  get  for  himself 
a  possession,  he  makes  no  valuable  contribution  to  the 
world's  good,  and  only  by  accident  effects  anything  for 
which  other  men  are  thankful ;  but  let  a  man  even 
with  small  means  at  his  command  have  the  interests  of 
others  at  his  heart,  and  he  sets  in  motion  endless 
agencies  and  influences  that  bless  whatever  they  touch. 
It  is  this  then  that  our  Lord  does  for  us  by  claiming 
our  service;  He  gives  us  the  opportunity  of  sinking 
our  selfishness,  which  is  in  the  last  analysis  our  sin, 
and  of  living  for  a  worthier  object  than  our  own 
pleasure  or  our  own  careful  preservation.  When  He 
tells  us  to  live  for  Him  and  to  seek  the  things  that  are 
His,  He  but  tells  us  in  other  words  and  in  a  more 
attractive  and  practical  form  to  seek  the  common  good. 


THE   FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 


We  seek  the  things  that  are  Christ's  when  we  act 
as  Christ  would  act  were  He  in  our  place,  when  we 
let  Christ  live  through  us,  when  w^e,  by  considering 
\\hat  He  would  have  us  do,  let  His  influence  still  tell 
on  the  world  and  His  will  still  be  done  in  the  world. 
This  should  be  so  done  by  each  and  every  Christian  that 
the  result  would  be  the  same  as  if  Christ  had  per- 
sonally at  command  all  the  resources  for  good  that  are 
possessed  by  His  people,  as  if  He  were  Himself 
expending  all  the  money,  energy,  and  time  that  are 
being  expended  by  His  people,  so  that  at  every  point 
where  there  is  a  Christian  Christ's  purposes  might  be 
being  forwarded.  This  is  the  devotedness  we  are 
called  to;  this  is  the  devotedness  we  must  cultivate 
until  we  do  make  some  considerable  attainment  in  it. 


EXCOMMUmCATION ;    OR,  PURGING  OUT  THE 
OLD  LEAVEN. 


"For  this  cause  have  I  sent  unto  you  Tirrotheus,  who  is  my 
beloved  son,  and  faithful  in  the  Lord,  who  shall  bring  you  into 
remembrance  of  my  ways  which  be  in  Christ,  as  I  teach  every  where 
in  every  church.  Now  some  are  puffed  up,  as  though  I  would  not 
come  to  you.  But  I  will  come  to  you  shortly,  if  the  Lord  will,  and 
will  know,  not  the  speech  of  them  which  are  puffed  up,  but  the 
power.  For  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  in  word,  but  in  power. 
What  will  ye  ?  shall  I  come  unto  you  with  a  rod,  or  in  love,  and  in 
the   spirit    of  meekness?" 

"  It  is  reported  commonly  that  there  is  fornication  among  j'ou,  and 
such  fornication  as  is  not  so  much  as  named  among  the  Gentiles, 
that  one  should  have  his  father's  wife.  And  ye  are  pulfcd  up,  and 
have  not  rather  mourned,  that  he  that  hath  done  this  deed  might  be 
taken  away  from  among  you.  For  I  verily,  as  absent  in  body,  but 
present  in  spirit,  have  judged  already  as  though  I  were  present, 
concerning  him  that  hath  so  done  this  deed.  In  the  name  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  when  ye  are  gathered  together,  and  my_  spirit, 
with  the  power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  deliver  such  an  one  unto 
Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  that  the  spirit  may  be  saved 
in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Your  glorymg  is  not  good.  Know  ye 
not  that  a  little  leaven  leaveneth  the  whole  lump?  Purge  out  there- 
fore the  old  leaven,  that  ye  may  be  a  new  lump,  as  ye  are  unleavened. 
For  even  Christ  our  passover  is  sacrificed  for  us  :  therefore  let  us 
keep  the  feast,  not  with  old  leaven,  neither  with  the  leaven  of  malice 
and  wickedness  ;  but  with  the  unleavened  bread  of  sincerity  and 
truth.  I  wrote  unto  3'ou  in  an  epistle  not  to  company  with  forni- 
cators :  yet  not  altogether  with  the  fornicators  of  this  world,  or  with 
the  covetous,  or  extortioners,  or  with  idolaters;  for  then  must  ye 
needs  go  out  of  the  world.  But  now  I  have  written  unto  you  not 
to  keep  company,  if  any  man  that  is  called  a  brother  be  a  fornicator, 
or  covetous,  or  an  idolater,  or  a  railer,  or  a  drunkard,  or  an  extor- 
tioner ;  with  such  an  one  no  not  to  eat.  For  what  have  I  to  do  to 
judge  them  also  that  are  without?  do  not  ye  judge  them  that  are 
within  ?  But  them  that  arc  without  God  judgcth.  Therefore  put 
away  from  among  yourselves  that  wicked  person." — I  Cor.  iv.  17- 
V.  13. 


VIIT. 

EXCOMMUNICATION ;    OR,   PURGING  OUT  THE   OLD 
LEA  VEN. 

FROM  the  subject  of  the  factions  in  the  Corinthian 
Church,  which  has  so  long  detained  Paul,  he  now 
passes  to  the  second  division  of  his  Epistle,  in  which 
he  speaks  of  the  relation  the  Christians  should  hold 
to  the  heathen  population  around  them.  The  transition 
is  easy  and  such  as  befits  a  letter.  Paul  had  thought 
it  advisable  to  send  Timothy,  who  perfectly  understood 
his  mind,  and  could  represent  his  views  more  fully  than 
a  letter ;  but  it  now  occurred  to  him  that  this  might  be 
construed  by  some  of  the  vain  popular  leaders  in  the 
Church  into  a  timorous  reluctance  on  his  part  to  appear 
in  Corinth  and  a  sign  that  they  were  no  longer  to 
be  held  in  check  by  the  strong  hand  of  the  Apostle. 
"  Some  are  puffed  up,  as  though  /  would  not  come  to 
you."  He  assures  them  therefore  that  he  himself  will 
come  to  Corinth,  and  also  that  the  leaders  of  the 
Church  have  little  reason  to  be  puffed  up,  seeing  that 
they  have  allowed  in  the  Church  an  immorality  so 
gross  that  even  the  lower  standard  of  pagan  ethics 
regards  it  as  an  unnameable  abomination ;  and  if 
once  it  is  named,  it  is  only  to  say  that  not  all  the 
waters  of  ocean  can  wash  av.ay  such  guilt.  Instead 
of  being  puffed  up,  Paul  tells  them,  they  should  rather 


ii6     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

be  ashamed  and  at  once  take  steps  to  put  away  from 
them  so  great  a  scandal.  If  not,  he  must  come,  not 
in  meekness  and  love,  but  with  a  rod. 

/  The  Corinthian  Church  had  fallen  into  a  common 
snare.  Churches  have  always  been  tempted  to  pique 
themselves  on  their  rich  foundations  and  institutions, 
on  producing  champions  of  the  faith,  able  writers, 
eloquent  preachers,  on  their  cultured  ministry,  on 
their  rich  and  aesthetic  services,  and  not  on  that  very 
thing  for  which  the  Church  exists:  the  cleansing  of 
the  morals  of  the  people  and  their  elevation  to  a  truly 
spiritual  and  godly  life.  And  it  is  the  individuals 
who  give  character  to  any  Church.  "  A  little  leaven 
leaveneth  the  whole  lump."  Each  member  of  a  Church 
in  each  day's  conduct  in  business  and  at  home  stakes, 
not  only  his  own  reputation,  but  the  credit  of  the 
Church  to  which  he  belongs.  Involuntarily  and  un- 
consciously men  lower  their  opinion  of  the  Church 
and  cease  to  expect  to  find  in  her  a  fountain  of 
spiritual  life,  because  they  find  her  members  selfish 
and  greedy  in  business,  ready  to  avail  themselves  of 
doubtful  methods ;  harsh,  self-indulgent,  and  despotic 
at  home,  tainted  with  vices  condemned  by  the  least 
educated  conscience.  Let  us  remember  that  our 
little  leaven  leavens  what  is  in  contact  with  us  ;  that 
our  worldliness  and  unchristian  conduct  tend  to 
lower    the    tone    of   our    circle,    encourage    others    to 

^  live  down  to  our  level,  and  help  to  demoralize  the 
community. 

In  the  judgment  Paul  pronounces  on  the  Corinthian 
culprit  two  points  are  important.  First,  it  is  note- 
worthy that  Paul,  Apostle  though  he  was,  did  not 
take  the  case  out  of  the  hands  of  the  congregation. 
His   own    judgment    on    the    case   was   explicit   and 


IV.  1 7-v.  1 3-]  EXCOMMUNICA  TION.  1 1 7 

decided,  and  this  judgment  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
declare  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  the  congregation 
which  must  deal  with  the  case  and  pronounce  judg- 
ment in  it.  The  excommunication  he  enjoined  was  to 
be  their  act.  *'  Put  away  from  among  yourselves,"  he 
says  (v.  13),  "that  wicked  person."  The  government 
of  the  Church  was  in  Paul's  idea  thoroughly  demo- 
cratic ;  and  where  the  power  to  excommunicate  has 
been  lodged  in  a  priesthood,  the  results  have  beer 
deplorable.  Either,  on  the  one  hand,  the  people  have 
become  craven  and  have  lived  in  terror,  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  priest  has  been  afraid  to  measure  hi-? 
strength  with  powerful  offenders.  In  our  own  country 
and  in  others  this  power  of  excommunication  has 
been  abused  for  the  most  unworthy  purposes,  political, 
social,  and  private ;  and  only  when  it  is  lodged  in  the 
congregation  can  you  secure  a  fair  judgment  and  moral 
right  to  enforce  it.  There  is  little  fear  that  this  power 
will  nowadays  be  abused.  Men  themselves  conscious 
of  strong  propensities  to  evil  and  of  many  sins  are 
more  likely  to  be  lax  in  administering  discipline  than 
forward  to  use  their  power  ;  and  so  far  from  eccle- 
siastical discipline  producing  in  its  administrators 
harsh,  tyrannical,  and  self-righteous  feeHngs,  it  rather 
works  an  opposite  effect,  and  evokes  charity,  a  sense 
of  solemn  responsibility,  and  the  longing  for  the 
welfare  of  others  which  lies  latent  in  Christian 
minds. 

But,  second,  the  precise  punishment  intended  by 
Paul  is  couched  in  language  which  the  present  genera- 
tion cannot  readily  understand.  The  culprit  is  not 
only  to  be  excluded  from  Christian  communion,  but 
"  to  be  delivered  unto  Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the 
flesh,  that  the  spirit  may  be  saved."     Many  meanings 


ii8     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

have  been  put  upon  these  words;  but  after  all  has 
been  said,  the  natural  and  obvious  meaning  of  the  words 
asserts  itself.  Paul  believed  that  certain  sins  were  more 
likely  to  be  cured  by  bodily  suffering  than  by  any 
other  agency.  Naturally  sins  of  the  flesh  belonged 
to  this  class.  Bodily  suiTering  of  some  kinds  he 
believed  to  be  the  infliction  of  Satan.  Even  his  own 
thorn  in  the  flesh  he  spoke  of  as  a  messenger  of  Satan 
sent  to  buftet  him.  He  expected  also  that  the  judg- 
ment pronounced  by  himself  and  the  congregation  on 
this  offender  would  be  given  effect  to  in  God's  provi- 
dence; and  accordingly  he  bids  the  congregation  hand 
the  man  over  to  this  disciplinary  suffering,  not  as  a 
final  doom,  but  as  the  only  likely  means  of  saving  his 
soul.^  If  the  offender  mentioned  in  the  Second  Epistle 
is  the  same  man,  then  we  have  evidence  that  the 
discipline  was  effectual,  that  the  sinner  did  repent  and 
was  overwhelmed  with  shame  and  sorrow.  Certainly 
such  an  experience  of  punishment,  though  not  invariably 
or  even  commonly  effectual,  is  in  itself  calculated  to 
penetrate  to  the  very  depth  of  a  man's  spirit  and  give 
him  new  thoughts  about  his  sin.  If  when  suffering 
h?  ran  acknowledge  his  own  wrong-doing  as  the  cause 
of  his  misery  and  accept  all  the  bitter  and  grievous 
penalties  his  sin  has  incurred,  if  he  can  truly  humble 
himself  before  God  in  the  matter  and  own  that  all  he: 
suffers  is  right  and  good,  then  he  is  nearer  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  than  ever  he  was  before.  Substantially 
the  same  idea  as  Paul's  is  put  in  the  mouth  of  the 
Pope  by  the  most  modern  of  poets  : — 

'  Some  accouiit  of  the  Jew  ish  and  other  forms  of  excommunication 
is  given  in  the  Encycl.  Brit.,  art.  Excommunication.  Milman's 
History  of  the  Jews,  Book  XIX.,  should  also  be  consulted,  and  the 
Fontijicale  Rumaiuim. 


iv.  17-V.  1  J.]  EXCOMMUNICA  TION.  1 19 


"  For  the  main  criminal  I  have  no  hope 
Except  in  such  a  suddenness  of  fate. 
I  stood  at  Naples  once,  a  night  so  dark, 
I  could  have  scarce  conjectured  there  was  earth 
Anywhere,  sky,  or  sea,  or  world  at  all, 
But  the  night's  black  was  burst  through  by  a  blaze ; 
Thunder  struck  blow  on  blow ;   Earth  groaned  and  bore, 
Through  her  whole  length  of  mountain  visible  : 
There  lay  the  city  thick  and  plain  v/ith  spires, 
And,  like  a  ghost  disshrouded,  white  the  sea. 
So  may  the  truth  be  flashed  out  by  one  blow, 
And  Guido  see  one  instant  and  be  saved." 


The  necessity  for  keeping  their  communion  pure,  for 
being  a  society  with  no  leaven  of  wickedness  among 
them,  Paul  proceeds  to  urge  and  iUustrate  in  the  words, 
"  For  even  Christ  our  passover  is  sacrificed  for  us  ; 
therefore  let  us  purge  out  the  old  leaven."  The 
allusion  was,  of  course,  much  more  telling  to  Jews  than 
it  can  possibly  be  to  us ;  still,  if  we  call  to  mind  the 
outstanding  ideas  of  the  Passover,  we  cannot  fail  to 
feel  the  force  of  the  admonition.  That  must  be  the 
simplest  explanation  of  the  Passover  which  Jewish 
parents  were  enjoined  to  give  to  their  children,  in  the 
words,  "  By  strength  of  hand  the  Lord  brought  us  out 
of  Egypt,  from  the  house  of  bondage.  And  it  came  to 
pass  when  Pharaoh  would  hardly  let  us  go,  that  the 
Lord  slew  all  the  firstborn  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  with 
the  firstborn  of  man  and  the  firstborn  of  beast.  There- 
fore I  sacrifice  to  the  Lord  all  the  firstborn  being 
males,  but  all  the  firstborn  of  my  children  I  redeem." 
That  is  to  say,  all  the  firstborn  of  animals  they 
sacrificed  to  God,  slaying  them  on  His  altar,  but 
instead  of  slaying  the  human  firstborns  they  redeem.ed 
them  by  sacrificing  a  lamb  in  their  stead.  The  whole 
transaction  of  the   night  of  the  first    Passover   stood 


I20     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

thus  :  God  claimed  the  Israelites  as  His  people ;  the 
Egyptians  also  claimed  them  as  theirs.  And  as  no 
warning  would  persuade  the  Egyptians  to  let  them 
away  to  serve  God,  God  at  last  forcibly  delivered 
them,  slaying  the  flower  of  the  Egyptian  people,  and  so 
crippling  and  dismaying  them  as  to  give  Israel  opportu- 
nity of  escape.  Being  thus  rescued  that  they  might  be 
God's  people,  they  felt  bound  to  continue  to  own  this ; 
and  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  their  time  they 
expressed  their  sense  of  it  by  sacrificing  their  firstborn, 
by  presenting  them  to  God  as  belonging  to  Him.  By  this 
outward  sacrificial  act  engaged  in  by  every  family  it 
was  acknowledged  that  the  whole  nation  belonged  to 
God. 

Christ,  then,  is  our  Passover  or  Paschal  Lamb,  in  the 
first  place,  because  through  Him  there  is  made  the  ac- 
knowledgment that  we  belong  to  God.  He  is  in  very 
truth  the  prime  and  flower,  the  best  representative  of 
our  race,  the  firstborn  of  every  creature.  He  is  the 
one  who  can  make  for  all  others  this  acknowledgment 
that  we  are  God's  people.  And  He  does  so  by  perfectly 
giving  Himself  up  to  God.  This  fact  that  we  belong  to 
God,  that  we  men  are  His  creatures  and  subjects,  has 
never  been  perfectly  acknowledged  save  by  Christ. 
No  individual  or  society  of  people  has  ever  lived  entirely 
for  God.  No  man  has  ever  fully  recognised  this' 
apparently  simple  truth,  that  we  are  not  our  own,  but 
God's.  The  Israelites  made  the  acknowledgment  in 
form,  by  sacrifice,  but  Christ  alone  made  it  in  deed 
by  giving  Himself  up  wholly  to  do  God's  will.  The 
Israelites  made  the  acknowledgment  from  time  to  time, 
and  with  probably  more  or  less  truthfulness  and  sin- 
cerity, but  Christ's  whole  spirit  and  habitual  temper  of 
mind  was  that  of  perfect  obedience  and  dedication. 


iv.  1 7-v.  13]  EXCOMMUNICA  TION.  I2 1 

Only  those  of  us,  then,  who  see  that  we  ought  to 
hve  for  God  can  claim  Christ  as  our  representative. 
His  dedication  to  God  is  unmeanirg  to  us  if  we  do  not 
desire  to  belong  entirely  to  God.  If  He  is  our  Passover, 
the  meaning  of  this  is  that  He  gives  u?  liberty  to  serve 
God  ;  if  we  do  not  mean  to  be  God's  people,  if  we 
do  not  resolutely  purpose  to  put  ourselves  at  God's 
disposal,  then  it  is  idle  and  false  of  us  to  talk  of  Him 
as  our  Passover.  Christ  comes  to  bring  us  back  to 
God,  to  redeem  us  from  all  that  hinders  our  serving 
Him ;  but  if  we  really  prefer  being  our  own  masters, 
then  manifestly  He  is  useless  to  us.  It  is  no  matter 
what  we  say^  nor  what  rites  and  forms  we  go  through ; 
the  one  question  is.  Do  we  at  heart  wish  to  give  our- 
selves up  to  God  ?  Does  Christ  really  represent  us, — 
represent,  by  His  devoted  unworldly  life,  our  earnest 
and  hearty  desire  and  intention  ?  Do  we  find  in  His 
life  and  death,  in  His  submission  to  God  and  meek 
acceptance  of  all  God  appointed,  the  truest  represen- 
tation of  what  we  ourselves  would  fain  be  and  do,  but 
cannot  ? 

It  is  through  this  self-sacrifice  of  Christ  that  we  can 
become  God's  people,  and  enjoy  all  the  liberties  and 
advantages  of  His  people.  Christ  becomes  the  repre- 
sentative of  all  whose  state  of  mind  His  sacrifice 
represents.  If  we  would  fain  be  of  one  mind  and  will 
with  God  as  Christ  was,  if  we  feel  the  degradation  and 
bitterness  of  failing  God  and  disappointing  the  trust 
He  has  confided  in  us  His  children,  if  our  life  is 
wholly  spoiled  by  the  latent  feeling  that  all  is  wrong 
because  we  are  not  in  harmony  with  the  wise  and 
holy  and  loving  Father,  if  we  feel  with  more  and  more 
distinctness,  as  life  goes  on,  that  there  is  a  God,  and 
that  the  foundation  of  all  happiness  and  soundness  of 


122     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

life  must  be  laid  in  union  with  Him,  then  Christ's 
perfect  surrender  of  Himself  to  the  will  of  the  Father 
represents  what  we  would  but  cannot  ourselves  achieve. 
When  the  Israelite  came  with  his  lamb,  feeling  the 
attractiveness  and  majesty  of  God,  and  desiring  to 
pour  his  whole  life  out  in  fellowship  with  God  and 
service  of  Him,  as  entirely  as  the  life  of  the  lamb  was 
poured  out  at  the  altar,  God  accepted  this  symbolic 
utterance  of  the  worshipper's  heart.  As  the  wor- 
shipping Israelite  saw  in  the  animal  yielding  its 
whole  life  the  very  utterance  of  his  own  desire,  and  said. 
Would  God  I  could  as  freely  and  entirely  devote 
myself  with  all  my  powers  and  energies  to  my  Father 
above  ;  so  we,  looking  at  the  free,  and  loving,  and 
eager  sacrifice  of  our  Lord,  say  in  our  hearts.  Would 
God  I  could  thus  live  in  God  and  for  God,  and  so 
become  one  with  perfect  purity  and  justice,  with  infinite 
love  and  power. 

The  Paschal  Lamb  then  was  in  the  first  place  the 
acknowledgment  by  the  Israelites  that  they  belonged 
to  God.  The  lamb  was  offered  to  God,  not  as  being 
itself  anything  worthy  of  God's  acceptance,  but  merely 
as  a  way  of  saying  to  God  that  the  family  who  offered 
it  gave  themselves  up  as  entirely  to  Him.  But  by 
thus  becoming  a  kind  of  substitute  for  the  family,  it 
saved  the  firstborn  from  death.  God  did  not  wish 
to  smite  Israel,  but  to  save  them.  He  did  not  wish  to 
confound  them  with  the  Egyptians,  and  make  an  indis- 
criminate slaughter.  But  God  did  not  simply  omit  the 
Israelite  houses,  and  pick  out  the  Egyptian  ones  through- 
out the  land.  He  left  it  to  the  choice  of  the  people 
Vi/hether  they  would  accept  His  deliverance  and  belong 
to  Him  or  not.  He  told  them  that  every  home  v.ould 
be  safe,  on  the  door-posts  of  which  there  was  visible 


1v.17-v.13.]  EXCOMMUNICATION.  123 

the  blood  of  the  lamb.  The  blood  of  the  lamb  thus 
provided  a  refuge  for  the  people,  a  shelter  from  death 
which  otherwise  would  have  fallen  upon  them.  The 
angel  of  judgment  was  to  recognise  no  distinction 
between  Israelite  and  Egyptian  save  this  of  the 
sprinkled,  stained  door-posts.  Death  was  to  enter 
every  house  where  the  blood  was  not  visible ;  mercy 
Vv^as  to  rest  on  every  family  that  dwelt  under  this  sign. 
God's  judgment  was  out  that  night  all  over  the  land, 
and  no  difference  of  race  was  made  anything  of.  They 
who  had  disregarded  the  use  of  the  blood  would  have 
no  time  to  object.  We  be  Abraham's  seed.  God 
meant  that  they  should  all  be  rescued,  but  He  knew 
that  it  was  quite  possible  that  some  had  become  so 
entangled  with  Egypt  that  they  would  be  unwilling  to 
leave  it,  and  He  would  not  force  any — we  may  say 
He  could  not  force  any — to  yield  themselves  to  Him. 
This  rendering  of  ourselves  to  God  must  be  a  free  act 
on  our  part ;  it  must  be  the  deliberate  and  true  act  of 
a  soul  that  feels  convinced  of  the  poverty  and  wretched- 
ness of  all  Hfe  that  is  not  serving  God.  And  God 
left  it  in  the  choice  of  each  family — they  might  or 
might  not  use  the  blood,  as  they  pleased.  But  wherever 
it  was  used,  safety  and  deliverance  were  thereby 
secured.  Wherever  the  lamb  was  slain  in  acknow- 
ledgment that  the  family  belonged  to  God,  God  dealt 
with  them  as  with  His  own.  Wherever  there  was  no 
such  acknowledgment,  they  were  dealt  with  as  those 
who  preferred  to  be  God's  enemies. 

And  now  Christ  our  Passover  is  slain,  and  we  are 
asked  to  determine  the  apphcation  of  Christ's  sacrifice, 
to  say  whether  we  will  use  it  or  no.  We  are  not  asked 
to  add  anything  to  the  efficacy  of  t'  at  sacrifice,  but 
only   to  avail   ourselves  of  it.     Passing   through   the 


124     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

Streets  of  the  Egyptian  cities  on  the  night  of  the 
Passover,  you  could  have  told  who  trusted  God  and 
who  did  not.  Wherever  there  was  faith  there  was 
a  man   in  the  twilight  with  his   bason   of  blood   and 

A  ,^  bunch  of  hysso  \  sprinkling  his  lintel  and  then  going 
in  and  shutting  his  door,  resolved  that  no  solicitation 
■^  should  tempt  him  from  behind  the  blood  till  the  angel 
was  by.  He  took  God  at  His  word  ;  he  believed  God 
meant  to  deliver  him,  and  he  did  what  he  was  told  was 
his  part.  The  result  was  that  he  was  rescued  from 
Egyptian  bondage.  God  now  desires  that  we  be 
separated  from  everything  which  prevents  us  from 
gladly  serving  Him,  from  every  evil  bias  in  us  which 
prevents  us  from  delighting  in  God,  from  all  that 
makes  us  feel  guilty  and  unhappy,  from  all  sin  that 
enchains  us  and  makes  our  future  hopeless  and  dark. 
God  calls  us  to  Himself,  meaning  that  we  shall  one 
day  get  for  ever  past  all  that  has  made  us  unfaithful 
to  Him  and  all  that  has  made  it  impossible  for  us  to 
find  deep  and  lasting  pleasure  in  serving  Him.  To 
us  He  throws  open  a  way  out  from  all  bondage,  and 
from  all  that  gives  us  the  spirit  of  slaves  ;  He  gives 
us  the  opportunity  of  following  Him  nito  real  and  free 
life,  into  glad  fellowship  with  Him  and  joyful  partner- 
ship in  His  ever  beneficent  and  progressive  work. 
What  response  are  we  making?  In  the  face  of  the 
varied  difficulties  and  deluding  appearances  of  this 
life,  in  the  face  of  the  complexity  and  inveterate 
hold  of  sin,  can  you  believe  that  God  seeks  to  deliver 
you  and  even  now  designs  for  you  a  life  that  is  worthy 
of  His  greatness  and  love,  a  life  which  shall  perfectly 
satisfy  you  and  give  play  to  all  your  worthy  desires 
and  energies  ? 

y    y^   Sacrifices  were  in  old  times  accompanied  by  feasts 


IV.  I7-V.  I3-]  EXCOMMUNICATION.  125 


in  which  the  reconciled  Go  J  and  His  worshippers  ate 
together.  In  the  feast  of  Passover  the  lamb  which 
had  been  used  as  a  sacrifice  was  consumed  as  food  to 
strengthen  the  Israelites  for  their  exodus.  This  idea 
Paul  here  adapts  to  his  present  purpose.  "  Christ  our 
passover  is  sacrificed  for  us,"  he  says ;  *'  let  us  there- 
fore keep  the  feast."  The  whole  life  of  the  Christian 
is  a  festal  celebration  ;  his  strength  is  maintained  by 
that  which  has  given  him  peace  with  God.  By  Christ's 
death  God  reconciles  us  to  Himself;  out  of  Christ  we 
continually  receive  what  fits  us  to  serve  God  as  His 
free  people.  Every  Christian  should  aim  at  making 
his  life  a  celebration  of  the  true  deliverance  Christ  has 
accomplished  for  us.  We  should  see  that  our  life  is 
a  true  exodus,  and  being  so  it  will  bear  marks  of 
triumph  and  of  freedom.  To  feed  upon  Christ,  joyfully 
to  assiiHiFate  all  that  is  in  Him  to  our  own  character, 
it  is  this  which  makes  life  festal,  which,  turns  faintness 
into  abounding  strength,  and  brings  z?st  and  appetite 
into  monotonous  labour. 

But  Paul's  purpose  in  introducing  the  idea  of  the 
Passover  is  rather  to  enforce  his  injunction  to  the 
Corinthians  to  purge  their  communion  of  all  defile- 
ment. ''  Let  us  keep  the  feast,  not  with  old  leaven, 
neither  with  the  leaven  of  malice  and  v/ickedness ! " 
Leaven  was  judged  unclean,  because  ferm.entation  is 
one  form  of  corruption.  This  impurity  was  not  to  be 
touched  by  the  holy  people  during  their  festival  week. 
This  was  secured  at  the  first  keeping  of  the  Passover 
by  the  suddenness  of  the  exodus  when  the  people  fled 
with  their  kneading  boards  on  their  shoulders  and  had 
no  tim.e  to  take  leaven,  and  had  therefore  no  choice  but 
to  keep  God's  command  and  eat  unleavened  bread. 
And    so   scrupulously   did    the    people    at    all    times 


126     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

observe  this  that  before  the  day  of  the  feast  they  used 
to  sweep  their  houses  and  search  the  dark  corners 
with  candles,  lest  a  morsel  of  leaven  should  be  found 
among  them.  Thus  would  Paul  have  all  Christians  be 
separate  from  the  rotting,  fermenting  results  of  the  old 
life.  So  suddenly  would  he  have  us  issue  from  it  and 
so  clean  would  He  have  us  leave  it  all  behind  us.  A 
Utile  leaven  leaveneth  the  whole  lump;  therefore  must 
we  be  careful,  if  we  would  keep  this  precept  and  be 
clean,  to  search  into  even  unlikely  corners  in  our 
hearts  and  lives,  and  as  with  the  candle  of  the  Lord 
make  diligent  search  for  the  tainting  remnant. 

It  is  the  purpose  to  keep  the  feast  faithfully,  and 
live  as  those  who  are  delivered  from  bondage,  which 
reveals  in  our  consciousness  how  much  we  have  to  put 
away,  and  how  much  of  the  old  life  is  following  on 
into  the  new.  Habits,  feelings,  likings  and  dislikings, 
all  go  with  us.  The  unleavened  bread  of  holiness  and 
of  a  life  bound  to  and  ruled  by  the  earnest  and  godly 
life  of  Christ,  seems  flat  and  insipid,  and  we  crave 
something  more  stimulating  to  the  appetite.  The  old 
intolerance  of  regular,  intelligent,  continuous  prayer, 
the  old  willingness  to  find  a  rest  in  this  world,  must 
be  purged  out  as  leaven  which  will  alter  the  whole 
character  of  our  life.  Are  our  holy  days  holidays,  or 
do  we  endure  holiness  of  thought  and  feeling  mainly 
on  the  consideration  that  holiness  is  but  for  a  season  ? 
Patiently  and  believingly  resist  the  stirrings  of  the 
old  nature.  Measure  all  that  rises  in  you  and  all  that 
quickens  your  blood  and  stirs  your  appetite  by  the 
death  and  spirit  of  Christ.  Sever  yourself  determinedly 
from  all  that  alienates  you  from  Him,  The  old  life 
and  the  new  should  not  run  parallel  with  one  another 
so  that  you  can  pass  from  the  one  to  the  other.     They 


IV.  1 7-v.  13.]  EXCOMMUNICA  TION.  127 

are  not  side  by  side,  but  end  to  end ;  the  one  all 
preceding  the  other,  the  one  ceasing  and  terminating 
where  the  other  begins. 

The  old  leaven  is  to  be  put  away :  "  the  leaven  of 
malice  and  wickedness,"  the  bad-heartedness  that  is 
not  seen  to  be  bad  till  brought  into  the  light  of  Christ's 
spirit ;  the  spiteful,  vindictive,  and  selfish  feelings  that 
are  almost  expected  in  society,  these  are  to  be  put 
away ;  and  in  their  stead  "  the  unleavened  bread  of 
sincerity  and  truth"  is  to  be  introduced.  Above  all 
things,  Paul  would  say,  let  us  be  sincere.  The  word 
"  sincere  "  sets  before  the  mind  the  natural  image  from 
which  the  moral  quality  takes  its  name,  the  honey  free 
from  the  smallest  particle  of  wax,  pure  and  pellucid. 
The  word  which  Paul  himself,  using  his  own  language, 
here  sets  down,  conveys  a  similar  idea.  It  is  a  word 
derived  from  the  custom  of  judging  the  purity  of  liquids 
or  the  texture  of  cloths  by  holding  them  between  the 
eye  and  the  sun.  What  Paul  desiderates  in  the 
Christian  character  is  a  quality  which  can  stand  this 
extreme  test,  and  does  not  need  to  be  seen  only  in 
an  artificial  light.  He  wants  a  pure  transparent 
sincerity  ;  he  wants  what  is  to  its  finest  thread  genuine ; 
an  acceptance  of  Christ  which  is  real,  and  which  is 
rich  in  eternal  results. 

Are  we  living  a  genuine  and  true  life?  Are  we 
living  up  to  what  we  know  to  be  the  truth  about  life  ? 
Christ  has  given  us  the  true  estimate  of  this  world  and 
all  that  is  in  it.  He  has  measured  for  us  God's  require- 
ments, He  has  shown  us  what  is  the  truth  about  God's 
love ; — are  vve  living  in  this  truth  ?  Do  we  not  find 
that  in  our  best  intentions  there  is  some  mixture  of 
foreign  elements,  and  in  our  most  assured  choice  of 
Christ  som.e   remaining  elements    which    will   lead   us 


128     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

back  from  our  choice  ?  Even  while  we  own  Christ 
as  our  Saviour  from  sin,  we  are  but  half-incHncd  to  go 
out  from  its  bondage.  We  pray  God  for  dehverance, 
and  when  He  throws  wide  open  before  us  the  gate 
that  leads  away  from  temptation,  we  refuse  to  see  it, 
or  hesitate  until  again  it  is  closed.  We  know  how 
we  may  become  holy,  and  yet  will  not  use  our 
knowledge. 

Let  us,  whatever  else,  be  genuine.  Let  us  not  trifle 
with  the  purpose  and  requirements  of  Christ.  In  our 
deepest  and  clearest  consciousness  we  see  that  Christ 
does  open  the  way  to  the  true  Hfe  of  man  ;  that  it  is 
our  part  to  make  room  for  this  self-sacrificing  life  in 
our  own  day  and  in  our  own  circumstances ;  that  until 
we  do  so  we  can  only  by  courtesy  be  called  Christians. 
The  convictions  and  beliefs  which  Christ  inspires  are 
convictions  and  beliefs  about  what  we  should  be,  and 
what  Christ  means  all  human  life  to  be,  and  until  these 
convictions  and  beliefs  are  embodied  in  our  actual 
living  selves,  and  in  our  conduct  and  life,  we  feel  that 
we  are  not  genuine.  Time  will  bring  us  no  relief  from 
this  humiliating  position,  unless  time  brings  us  at 
length  to  yield  ourselves  freely  to  Christ's  Spirit,  and 
unless,  instead  of  looking  at  the  kingdom  He  seeks  to 
estabHsh  as  a  quite  impossible  Utopia,  we  set  ourselves 
resolutely  and  wholly  to  aid  in  the  annexing  to  His 
rule  our  own  little  world  of  business  and  of  all  the 
relations  of  life.  To  have  convictions  is  well,  but  if 
these  convictions  are  not  embodied  in  our  life,  then 
we  lose  our  life,  and  our  house  is  built  on  sand. 


ON  GOING  TO  LAW, 


"Dare  any  of  you,  having  a  matter  against  another,  go  to  law 
before  the  unjust,  and  not  before  the  saints  ?  Do  ye  not  know  that 
the  saints  shall  judge  the  world  ?  and  if  the  world  shall  be  judged  by 
you,  are  ye  unworthy  to  judge  the  smallest  matters?  Know  ye  not 
that  we  shall  judge  angels?  how  much  more  things  that  pertain  to 
this  life  ?  If  then  ye  have  judgments  of  things  pertaining  to  this  life, 
set  them  to  judge  who  are  least  esteemed  in  the  Church,  I  speak  to 
your  shame.  Is  it  so,  that  there  is  not  a  wise  man  among  you  ?  no, 
not  one  that  shall  be  able  to  judge  between  his  brethren  ?  But 
brother  goeth  to  law  with  brother,  and  that  before  the  unbelievers. 
Now  therefore  there  is  utterly  a  fault  among  you,  because  ye  go  to 
law  one  with  another.  Why  do  ye  not  rather  take  wrong  ?  why  do 
ye  not  rather  suffer  yourselves  to  be  defrauded  ?  Nay,  ye  do  wrong, 
and  defraud,  and  that  your  brethren.  Know  ye  not  that  the 
unrighteous  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  ?  Be  not  deceived  : 
neither  fornicators,  nor  idolaters,  nor  adulterers,  nor  effeminate,  nor 
abusers  of  themselves  with  mankind,  nor  thieves,  nor  covetous,  nor 
drunkards,  nor  revilers,  nor  extortioners,  shall  inherit  the  kingdom 
of  God.  And  such  were  som.e  of  you  :  but  ye  are  washed,  but  ye 
are  sanctified,  but  ye  are  justified  in  the  narpe  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and 
by  the  Spirit  of  our  God." — I  Cor.  vi.  I-II. 


IX. 

CN  GOLVG   TO  LAW. 

ST.  PAUL  here  gives  his  judgment  on  the  litigiousness 
of  the  Corinthians.  The  Greeks,  in  general,  were 
fond  of  going  to  law.  They  were  not  only  quarrelsome, 
but  they  seemed  to  derive  an  excitement  pleasant  to 
their  frivolous  nature  in  the  suspense  and  uncertainty 
of  cases  before  the  courts.  The  converts  to  Chris- 
tianity seemed  not  to  have  discarded  this  taste,  and  as 
a  habit  of  going  -to  law  not  merely  involved  great  loss 
of  time,  but  was  also  dangerous  to  the  feeling  of 
brotherhood  which  should  exist  among  Christians, 
St.  Paul  takes  the  opportunity  to  throw  in  some  advice 
on  the  subject.  He  has  been  telling  them  they  have 
nothing  to  do  with  judging  the  heathen ;  he  now 
proceeds  to  remind  them  that  they  ought  not  to  go  to 
law  before  the  heathen.  He  feared  that  an  unseem.ly 
wrangling  among  Christians  might  convey  to  the 
heathen  quite  an  erroneous  impression  of  the  nature 
of  their  religion.  There  was,  to  his  mind,  something 
incongruous,  something  monstrous,  in  brother  going 
to  law  with  brother.  What  was  that  brotherhood 
v»7orth  that  could  not  bear  a  little  wrong  ?  How  could 
he  continue  to  speak  of  Christian  love,  if  Christians 
were  to  bite  and  devour  one  another  ?  How  could  he 
preach  the  superiority  of  Christianity  to   heathenism 


132     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

if  Christians  had  so  Httle  common  sense,  so  httle  esprit 
de  corps,  so  httle  mutual  forbearance,  that  they  must 
call  in  a  heathen  to  settle  their  disputes  for  them  ? 
It  seemed  to  Paul  to  be  a  losing  of  caste  for  Christians 
to  proclaim  their  insufficiency  to  carry  on  their  own 
affairs  without  the  aid  of  heathen.  It  seemed  to  him 
a  public  profession  that  Christianity  was  not  sufficient 
for  the  needs  of  its  adherents. 

The  reasons  which  St.  Paul  adduces  to  give  weight 
to  his  rebuke  are  important. 

I.  The  saints  are  destined  to  judge  the  world,  to 
judge  angels;  that  is  to  say,  to  judge  persons  in 
separation  from  earthly  interests,  to  judge  unclothed 
detached  spirits,  to  ascertain  what  is  spiritually  good 
and  spiritually  evil.  Shall  they  not  then  be  considered 
fit  to  judge  little  worldly  matters,  matters  of  £  s.  d., 
matters  of  property  and  of  bargain  ?  This  statement 
that  the  saints  shall  judge  the  world  is  one  of  those 
broad  widely-suggestive  statements  with  which  St. 
Paul  from  time  to  time  surprises  us,  making  them 
casually,  as  if  he  had  many  more  equally  astounding 
facts  in  his  knowledge  which  he  might  also  reveal  if 
he  had  leisure.  It  is  difficult  to  grasp  the  statements 
which  he  makes  in  this  style  ;  it  is  also  difficult  to 
link  a  truth  so  revealed  to  the  truths  amid  which  we 
are  now  living  ;  it  is  difficult  even  to  ascertain  with 
precision  the  bearing  and  significance  of  it. 

It  seems  plain,  however,  that  whatever  else  may  be 
implied  in  this  statement,  and  in  whatever  way  it  is 
to  be  fulfilled,  St.  Paul  meant  that  ultimately,  in  that 
final  state  of  things  towards  which  all  present  things 
are  growing  and  travelling,  the  men  who  are  holy  shall 
be  at  the  head  of  affairs,  acknowledged  as  the  fittest 
to  discern  between  right  and  wrong ;  and  also  that  the 


vi.  i-ii.]  ON  GOING   TO  LAW,  133 

germ  and  first  principles  of  this  final  state  of  things 
are  already  implanted  in  the  world  by  the  Christian 
religion — two  very  important  truths,  certainly,  to  those 
who  believe  them.  The  precise  form  of  the  final 
judgment  and  future  government  of  the  world  we  can- 
not predict ;  but  from  this  statement  a  bright  ray  of 
light  shoots  into  the  darkness,  and  shows  us  that  the 
saints,  i.e.^  the  servants  of  Christ,  are  to  have  the 
responsibility  of  pronouncing  judgment  on  character, 
and  of  allotting  destiny,  reward  or  punishment.  We 
shrink  from  such  a  thought ;  not,  indeed,  that  we  are 
slow  to  pronounce  judgment  upon  our  fellow-men,  but 
to  do  so  officially,  and  in  connection  with  definite 
results,  seems  a  responsibility  too  heavy  for  merely 
human  judges  to  sustain.  But  why  men  should  not 
judge  men  hereafter  as  they  do  judge  them  now,  we 
do  not  see.  If  we,  in  this  present  world,  submit 
ourselves  to  those  who  have  knowledge  of  law  and 
ordinary  justice,  we  may  well  be  content  to  be  judged 
in  the  world  to  come  by  those  whose  holiness  has  been 
matured  by  personal  strife  against  evil,  by  sustained 
efforts  to  cleanse  their  souls  from  bias,  from  envy,  from 
haste,  from  harshness,  from  all  that  hinders  them  from 
seeing  and  loving  the  truth.  Holiness,  or  likeness  to 
God,  assimilation  to  His  mind,  formed  by  the  constant 
desire  to  judge  of  things  in  this  world  as  He  judges, 
and  to  love  truly  all  that  He  loves,  this  quality  is  surely 
worthy  to  be  at  the  head.  In  that  future  kingdom  of 
God  in  which  all  things  are  to  have  their  proper  place, 
and  are  to  be  ranked  according  to  their  real  worth, 
holiness  must  come  to  the  supremacy. 

But  equally  worthy  of  remark  is  St.  Paul's  inference 
from  the  fact  that  holiness  shall  eventually  be  supreme. 
His  inference  is  that  it  ought  now  to  be  regarded  as 


134     1JIE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

competent  to  settle  the  petty  disputes  which  arise 
among  us.  "  If  we  are  to  judge  angels,  much  more  the 
things  that  pertain  to  this  life."  Vv^e  can  only  arrive 
at  any  dignity  by  perseveringly  seeking  it.  If  the 
future  kingdom  of  God  is  to  be  a  perfect  kingdom, 
it  can  only  be  as  its  subjects  carry  into  it  characters 
which  have  been  strongly  tending  towards  perfection 
It  is  not  the  future  that  is  to  make  us,  but  we  who  are 
to  make  the  future.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within 
us  ;  if  not  there,  in  our  own  dispositions  and  likings, 
it  is  nowhere.  Pleaven  will  be  what  its  inhabitants 
make  it.  Earth  is  not  heaven  only  because  men 
decline  to  make  it  so.  We  do  not  know  the  forms 
which  society  will  assume  in  the  world  to  come,  when 
men  will  be  grouped,  not  by  families  and  blood- 
relationships,  and  the  necessary  requirements  of 
physical  life,  but  according  to  their  character  and 
moral  value,  their  spiritual  affinities  and  capacities  for 
usefulness.  But  though  we  cannot  say  exactly  how 
men  will  be  grouped,  nor  how  they  will  find  expres- 
sion for  all  that  intense  emotion  and  eager  activity 
which  in  this  life  creates  adventure,  war,  politics, 
speculation,  inventions  of  all  kinds,  we  do  knovv^  that 
wherever  there  are  men  there  m.ust  be  society  ;  there 
must  be  men  not  isolated  and  solitary,  but  working 
together  and  depending  one  on  the  other ;  and  that 
tb.ere  will  therefore  be  difficult  complications  of  interest 
and  obscure  relations  of  man  to  man  very  similar  to 
those  which  arise  in  this  world ;  but  that  those  diffi- 
culties will  be  removed  without  passion  and  wrangling 
and  the  interference  of  force.  A  heaven  and  an  earth 
there  will  be  ;  but  "  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth." 
The  outer  framework  will  be  very  much  the  same,  but 
the  inner  spirit  and  hfe  very  different.     But  it  is  not 


ri.  i-ii.]  ON  GOING   TO  LAW.  135 

the  altered  place  or  time  that  is  to  produce  in  us  this 
change  of  spirit;  we  are  to  find  it  there  only  if  we 
carry  it  with  us.  St.  Paul  takes  for  granted  that  the 
principles  which  are  to  be  perfectly  and  exclusively 
manifested  in  the  world  to  come,  are  now  cherished 
by  Christians.  And  as  there  will  be  no  differences 
in  heaven  which  cannot  be  adjusted  without  appeal  to 
an  authority  which  can  silence  and  reconcile  the  dis- 
putants, so  there  ought  to  be,  among  the  heirs  of 
heaven,  no  going  to  law  now. 

St.  Paul,  therefore,  while  he  contrasts  the  subjects 
in  which  a  lawyer-like  mind  will  find  employment  in 
this  world  and  the  next,  reminds  us  that  those  who 
are  here  trained  to  understand  character,  and  to  discern 
where  right  and  justice  lie,  will  be  in  no  want  of 
employment  in  the  world  to  come.  The  matters  which 
come  before  our  courts,  or  which  are  referred  privately 
to  lavv-yers,  may  often  be  in  themselves  very  paltry. 
A  vast  proportion  of  legal  business  is  created  by  changes 
from  which  the  future  life  is  exempt,  changes  conse- 
quent on  death,  on  marriage,  on  pecuniary  disasters. 
But  underneath  such  suits  as  these  the  keenest  of 
human  feelings  are  at  work,  and  it  is  often  in  the  power 
of  a  lawyer  to  give  a  man  advice  v;hich  will  save  his 
conscience  from  a  life-long  stain,  or  which  will  bring 
comfort  into  a  famnly  instead  of  heart-burning,  and 
plenty  in  place  of  penury.  The  physician  keeps  us 
in  life  ;  the  minister  of  Christ  tells  us  on  what  principles 
we  ought  to  live ;  but  the  lawyer  takes  our  hand  at 
every  great  practical  step  in  Hfe,  and  it  is  his  function 
(and  surely  there  is  none  higher)  to  insist  on  a  con- 
scientious use  of  money,  to  point  out  the  just  claims 
which  others  have  upon  us,  to  show  us  the  right  and  the 
wrong  in  all  our  ordinary  affairs,  and  thus  to  bring  justice 


136     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 


and  mercy  down  from  heaven  and  make  them  familiar 
to  the  market-place.  A.nd  therefore  many  of  the  finest 
characters  and  best  intellects  have  devoted  themselves, 
and  always  will  devote  themselves,  to  this  profession. 
It  may  attract  many  from  less  lofty  motives ;  but  it 
always  will  attract  those  who  are  concerned  to  save 
men  from  practical  folly,  and  who  wish  to  see  the 
highest  principles  brought  into  direct  contact  WMth 
human  affairs.  If  the  legal  mind  degenerates  into  a 
mere  memory  for  technicalities  and  acuteness  in  apply- 
ing forms,  nothing  can  be  more  contemptible  or 
dangerous  to  the  character ;  but  if  it  takes  to  do  with 
real  things,  and  not  with  forms  only,  and  tries  to  see 
what  equity  requires,  and  not  merely  what  the  letter  of 
the  law  enjoins,  and  seeks  to  forward  the  well-being  of 
men,  then  surely  there  is  no  profession  in  which  there 
is  such  abundant  opportunity  of  earning  the  beatitude 
which  says,  "  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers,"  none  in 
which  the  senses  can  better  be  exercised  to  discern 
between  good  and  evil,  none  in  which  men  may  better 
be  prepared  for  the  higher  requirements  of  a  heavenly 
society  in  which  some  are  made  rulers  over  ten 
cities. 

II.  The  second  confirmation  of  his  rebuke  St.  Paul 
brings  forward  in  the  fifth  verse  :  "  Is  there  not  a  wise 
man  among  yourselves  ? "  "A  wise  man "  was  the 
technical  term  for  a  judge  in  the  Hebrew  courts. 

To  understand  Paul's  position  we  must  bear  in  mind 
that  among  the  Jews  there  was  no  distinction  between 
Church  and  State.  The  courts  appointed  for  the 
determination  of  the  minor  causes  in  each  locality  were 
composed  of  the  same  persons  who  constituted  the 
eldership  of  the  synagogue.  In  the  synagogue  and  by 
the  eldership  offenders  were  both  tried  and  punished. 


vi.  i-ii.]  CN  GOING   TO  LAW.  137 

The  rabbis  said,  "  He  who  brings  lawsuits  of  Israel 
before  a  heathen  tribunal  profanes  the  Name,  and  does 
homage  to  idolatry ;  for  when  our  enemies  are  judges 
(Deut.  xxxii.  31)  it  is  a  testimony  to  the  superiority  of 
their  religion."  This  idea  passed  over  from  Judaism 
to  Christianity;  and  Paul  considers  it  a  scandal  that 
"brother  goeth  to  law  with  brother,  and  that  before 
the  u)ibelievers."  And  even  a  century  after  Paul's 
time  the  rule  of  the  Christian  Church  was  "Let  not 
those  who  have  disputes  go  to  law  before  the  civil 
powers,  but  let  them  by  all  means  be  reconciled  by  the 
elders  of  the  Church,  and  let  them  readily  yield  to 
their  decision."  And  as  late  as  our  own  day  we  find 
an  Arab  sheikh  complaining  that  Christian  Copts  com.e 
to  him,  a  Mohammedan,  to  settle  their  disputes  and 
"  won't  go  and  be  settled  by  the  priest  out  of  the 
Gospels." 

Did  Paul  then  mean  that  such  legal  cases  as  are  now 
tried  in  our  civil  courts  should  be  settled  by  non-profes- 
sional men  ?  Did  he  mean  that  ecclesiastical  courts 
should  take  out  of  the  hands  of  the  civil  magistrate  all 
pleas  regarding  property,  all  disputes  about  commercial 
transactions  ?  Did  he  foresee  none  of  the  great  evils 
that  have  arisen  wherever  Church  or  State  has  not 
respected  the  province  of  the  other,  and  was  he  prepared 
to  put  the  power  of  the  sword  into  the  hand  of  eccle- 
siastics ?  We  think  no  one  can  read  either  his  Hfe 
or  his  writings  without  seeing  that  this  was  not  his 
meaning.  He  taught  men  to  submit  themselves  to  the 
powers  that  then  were — i.e.f  to  the  heathen  magistrates 
of  Rome — and  he  himself  appealed  to  Caesar.  He  had 
no  notion  of  subverting  the  ordinary  legal  procedure 
and  civil  courts,  but  he  would  fain  have  deprived  them 
of  much   of  their  practice.     He  thought  it  might  be 


138     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 

expected  that  Christians  would  never  be  so  determinedly 
rancorous  or  so  blindly  covetous  but  that  their  disputes 
might  be  settled  by  private  and  friendly  advice.  He 
gives  no  orders  about  constituting  new  courts  and 
appointing  new  statutes  and  forms  of  procedure  ;  he  has 
no  idea  of  transferring  into  the  Church  all  the  para- 
phernalia of  civil  courts  :  but  he  maintains  that  if  a 
Christian  community  be  in  a  healthy  state,  few  quarrels 
will  be  referred  for  settlement  to  a  court  of  law. 
Courts  of  law  are  necessary  evils,  which  will  be  less 
and  less  patronized  in  proportion  as  Christian  feeling 
and  principle  prevail. 

This  rebuke  is  applicable  even  to  a  community  like 
our  own,  in  which  the  courts  of  law  are  not  heathen, 
but  Christian  ;  and  the  principle  on  which  the  rebuke 
is  based  is  one  that  has  gradually  worked  its  way  into 
the  heart  of  the  community.  It  is  felt,  felt  now  even 
by  nations  as  well  as  by  individuals,  that  if  a  dispute 
can  be  settled  by  arbitration,  this  is  not  only  cheaper, 
quicker,  and  equally  satisfactory,  but  that  it  is  a  more 
generous  and  Christian  way  of  getting  justice  done. 
Those  who  hold  of(ke  in  the  Church  may  not  always 
happen  to  be  suitable  arbitrators  ;  they  may  not  have 
the  technical  and  special  knowledge  requisite :  but 
Paul's  counsel  is  acted  on  if  disputes  among  Christians 
be  somehow  adjusted  in  a  friendly  way,  and  without 
the  interference  of  an  external  authority.  Christian 
people  may  need  legal  advice ;  they  may  not  know 
what  the  right  and  wrong  of  a  complicated  case  are  ; 
they  may  be  truly  at  a  loss  to  understand  how  much 
is  justly  theirs  and  how  much  their  neighbour's ;  they 
may  often  need  professional  aid  to  shed  light  on  a 
transaction  :  but  when  two  Christians  go  to  law  in  a 
spirit  of  rancour,  resolved  to  make  good  their  own  just 


vi.  i-ii.]  ON  GOING   TO  LAW.  1 39 

claims,  and  to  enforce  by  the  authority  of  law  what 
they  cannot  compass  by  right  feeling,  this  only  proves 
that  their  worldliness  is  stronger  than  their  Christianity. 
St.  Paul  thinks  it  a  scandal  and  a  degradation  when 
Christians  need  to. appeal  to  law  against  one  another. 
It  is  a  confession  that  Christian  principle  is  in  their 
case  insufficient  by  itself  to  carry  them  through  the 
practical  difficulties  of  life. 

But  some  one  will  say  to  this,  as  to  every  unworldly, 
truly  Christian,  and  therefore  novel  and  difficult  counsel, 
*'  It  savours  of  theory  and  of  romance  ;  a  man  cannot 
act  it  out  unless  he  is  prepared  to  be  duped,  and  cheated, 
and  imposed  upon.  It  is  a  theory  that  if  carried  out 
r./ust  end  in  beggary."  Just  as  if  the  world  could  be 
regenerated  by  anything  that  is  not  apparently  romantic! 
If  a  greater  good  is  to  be  reached,  it  must  be  by  some 
way  that  men  have  not  tried  before.  The  kingdoms  of 
this  world  will  not  become  the  kingdom  of  Christ  by 
the  admission  into  our  conduct  of  only  that  which  men 
have  tried  and  found  to  be  practicable,  and  void  of  all 
risk,  and  requiring  no  devotion  or  sacrifice.  If  then, 
any  one  says,  "  But  if  there  is  to  be  no  going  to  law, 
if  we  are  not  to  force  a  man  to  give  us  our  own, 
we  must  continually  be  losers,"  the  reply  of  a  well- 
known  Kincardineshire  lawyer  might  suffice,  "  Don't  go 
to  law  if  yielding  does  not  cost  you  more  than  forty 
shiUings  in  the  pound."  And  from  a  different  point  of 
view  St.  Paul  replies,  "Well,  and  what  though  you  be 
losers  ?  The  kingdom  you  belong  to  is  not  meat  and 
drink,  but  righteousness."  If  a  man  says,  "  We  must 
have  some  redress,  some  authority  to  extort  the  dues 
that  are  not  freely  given  ;  we  must  strike  when  we  are 
struck  ;  when  a  man  takes  our  coat,  we  must  summon 
him,  or  he  will  take  our  cloak  next,"  St.  Paul  replies, 


I40     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS. 


"  Well,  if  this  he  the  alternative,  if  you  must  either  push 
your  own  claims  and  insist  upon  your  rights,  or  suffer 
by  assuming  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  your 
Master,  why  do  you  not  rather  take  wrong  ?  why  do 
you  not  rather  suffer  yourselves  to  be  defrauded  ?  It 
may  be  quite  true  that  if  you  turn  the  other  cheek,  it  also 
will  be  smitten.  It  may  be  very  likely  that  a  greedy 
competitor  will  be  so  little  abashed  by  your  meekness, 
and  so  little  struck  by  your  magnanimity  in  giving  way 
to  some  of  his  demands,  that  he  will  even  be  encouraged 
to  greater  extortions.  It  is  quite  probable  that  if  you 
act  as  your  Master  did,  you  will  be  as  ill  off  in  this  world 
as  He  was.  But  is  that  any  reason  why  you  should  at 
once  call  Him  your  Master  and  refuse  to  obey  His  pre- 
cepts and  follow  His  example  ?  "  One  thing  is  certain  : 
that  so  long  as  men  honestly  accepted  Christ's  words  in 
their  plain  meaning,  and  followed  Him  in  His  own  way, 
making  light  of  worldly  loss,  Christianity  was  believed 
in  and  rapidly  extended.  It  was  seen  to  be  a  new 
V  moral  power  among  men,  and  was  welcomed  as  such, 
until  a  large  part  of  the  world  received  it ;  but  its  victory 
was  its  defeat.  Once  it  became  the  fashion,  once  it 
became  popular,  the  heart  of  it  was  eaten  out.  As  soon 
as  it  became  a  religion  without  hardship,  it  became  a 
religion  without  vitality. 

St.  Paul  then  shows  no  hesitation  about  pushing  his 
doctrine  to  its  consequences.  He  sees  that  the  real 
cure  of  wrangling,  and  of  fraud,  and  of  war  is  not 
litigation,  nor  any  outward  restraint  that  can  be  laid 
on  the  wrong-doer,  but  meekness,  and  unselfishness, 
and  unworldliness  on  the  part  of  those  who  suffer 
wrong.  The  world  has  laughed  at  this  theory  of  social 
regeneration  all  along ;  a  few  men  in  each  generation 
have  believed  in  it,  and  have  been  ridiculed  for  their 


vi.  i-ii.]  ON  GOING   TO  LAW.  I41 

belief.  At  the  same  time,  the  world  itself  is  aware,  or 
should  be  aware,  that  its  own  remedies  have  utterly 
failed.  Has  war  taught  nations  moderation  in  their 
ambition  ?  Has  it  saved  the  world  from  the  calamities 
which  it  is  said  would  ensue  were  any  one  nation  to 
prefer  submitting  to  injustice  rather  than  going  to  war  ? 
Have  the  outward  restraints  of  law  made  men  more 
just  or  less  avaricious  ?  There  has  been  time  to  test 
the  power  of  law  to  repress  crime,  and  to  compel  men 
to  honesty  and  justice.  Can  any  one  say  it  has  been 
so  successful  that  it  must  be  looked  to  as  the  great 
means  of  regenerating  society,  of  bringing  society  into 
that  healthy  and  ideal  state  which  statesmen  work  for, 
and  for  which  the  people  inarticulately  sigh  ?  Does 
not  St.  James  come  nearer  the  mark  when  he  says, 
"  Whence  come  wars  and  fightings  ?  Come  they  not 
hence,  even  of  the  lusts  that  war  in  your  members  ?  *' 
— i.e.y  from  the  restless  ambitions,  and  appetites,  and 
longings  of  men  who  seek  their  all  in  this  world  ? 
And  if  that  is  their  source,  it  is  to  that  we  must  apply 
the  remedy.  Law  is  necessary  for  restraining  the 
expressions  of  a  vicious  nature,  but  law  is  insufficient 
to  remove  the  possibility  of  these  expressions  by 
healing  the  nature.  This  can  only  be  done  by  the 
diffusion  of  unworldliness  and  unselfishness.  And  it 
is  Christians  who  are  responsible  for  diffusing  this 
unworldly  spirit,  and  who  must  diffuse  it,  not  by  talk 
and  advice,  but  by  practice  and  example;  by  themselves 
showing  what  unselfishness  is,  rebuking  covetousness 
by  yielding  to  its  demands,  shaming  all  wrong-doing 
by  refusing  to  retahate  while  they  expose  its  guilt. 

While  therefore  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  all 
the  laws  which  are  to  rule  in  the  perfected  kingdom  of 
God  can  find  immediate  and  unmodified  expression  in 


142     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

this  present  .world,  it  is  our  part  to  find  for  them  an 
introduction  into  the  world  in  every  case  in  which  it 
is  possible  to  apply  them.  Those  laws  which  are  to 
be  our  sole  rule  when  we  are  perfect  cannot  always  be 
immediately  applied  now.  For  example,  we  all  be- 
lieve that  ultimately  love  will  be  the  only  motive,  that 
all  service  of  God  and  of  one  another  will  eventually 
spring  solely  from  our  desire  to  serve  because  we  love. 
And  because  this  is  so,  some  persons  have  thought 
that  love  should  be  the  only  motive  now,  and  that 
obedience  which  is  procured  by  fear  is  useless ;  that 
preachers  ought  to  appeal  only  to  the  highest  parts  of 
man's  nature,  and  not  at  all  to  those  which  are  lower ; 
and  that  parents  should  never  threaten  punishment  nor 
enforce  obedience.  But  the  testimony  of  one  of  the 
most  genial  and  successful  of  preachers  is  that  "  of  all 
the  persons  to  whom  his  ministry  had  been  efficacious 
only  one  had  received  the  first  effectual  impressions 
from  the  gentle  and  attractive  aspects  of  religion,  all 
the  rest  from  the  awful  and  alarming  ones — the  appeals 
to  fear."  Take,  again,  the  testimony  of  one  of  the 
wisest  and  most  successful  of  our  schoolmasters.  *'  I 
can't  rule  my  boys,"  he  says,  *'  by  the  law  of  love.  If 
they  were  angels  or  professors,  I  might ;  but  as  they 
are  only  boys,  I  find  it  necessary  to  make  them  fear 
me  first,  and  then  take  my  chance  of  their  love  after- 
wards. By  this  plan  I  find  that  I  generally  get  both  ; 
by  reversing  the  process  I  should  in  most  cases  get 
neither."  And  God,  though  slow  to  anger  and  not 
easily  provoked,  scourgeth  every  son  whom  He  re- 
ceiveth,  not  dealing  with  us  now  as  He  will  deal  with 
us  when  perfect  love  has  cast  out  its  preparative  fear. 
So,  in  regard  to  the  n.atter  before  us,  there  must  be 
an   aiming  and   striving  towards   the  perfect  state  in 


vi.  i-ii.]  ON  GOING   TO  LAW.  143 

which  there  shall  be  no  going  to  law,  no  settling  of 
matters  by  appeal  to  anything  outside  the  heart  of  the 
persons  interested.  But  while  we  aim  at  this,  and 
seek  to  give  it  prevalence,  we  shall  also  be  occasionally 
forced  back  upon  the  severer  and  more  external  means 
of  self-defence.  The  mem.bers  of  Christ's  Church  are 
those  on  whom  the  burden  falls  of  giving  prevalence 
to  these  Christian  principles.  It  is  incumbent  upon 
them  to  show,  even  at  cost  to  themselves,  that  there 
are  higher,  better,  and  more  enduring  principles  than 
law,  and  the  customs  of  trade,  and  the  ways  of  the 
world.  And  however  difficult  it  may  be  theoretically  to 
hold  the  balance  between  justice  and  mercy,  between 
worldly  sharpness  and  Christian  meekness,  we  all  know 
that  there  are  some  who  practically  exhibit  a  large 
measure  of  this  Christian  temper,  who  prefer  to  take 
wrong  and  to  suffer  quietly  rather  than  to  expose  the 
wickedness  of  others,  or  to  resent  their  unjust  claims, 
or  to  complain  of  their  unfair  usage.  And  whatever 
the  most  worldly  of  us  may  think  of  such  conduct, 
however  we  may  smile  at  it  as  weak,  there  is  no  one 
of  us  but  also  pays  his  tribute  of  respect  to  those  who 
suffer  wrong,  loss,  detraction,  with  a  meek  and  cheerful 
patience  ;  and  whatever  be  the  lot  of  such  sufferers 
in  a  world  where  men  are  too  busy  in  pushing  their 
worldly  prospects  to  understand  those  who  are  not 
of  this  world,  we  have  no  doubt  in  what  esteem  they 
will  be  held  and  what  reward  they  will  receive  in 
a  world  where  the  Lamb  is  on  the  throne,  and  meek 
self-sacriiice  is  honestly  worshipped  as  the  highest 
quality  whether  in  God  or  in  man. 

Paul  knows  that  the  Christian  conscience  is  with 
him  when  he  declares  that  men  should  rather  suffer 
wrong    than   bring    reproach   on   the   Christian   name : 


144     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

"  Know  ye  not  that  wrong-doers  shall  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God  ?  Be  not  deceived  ;  neither  covetous, 
nor  drunkards,  nor  revilers,  nor  extortioners  shall 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God."  And  yet  how  little  do 
men  seem  to  take  to  heart  the  great  fact  that  they  are 
travelling  forward  to  a  state  in  which  nothing  uncon- 
genial to  the  Spirit  of  Christ  can  possibly  find  place. 
Do  they  think  of  the  future  at  all  ?  Do  they  believe 
that  a  state  of  things  ruled  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is 
to  follow  this  ?  And  what  preparation  do  they  make  ? 
Is  it  not  the  height  of  folly  to  suppose  that  the  selfish- 
ness and  greed,  the  indolence  and  frivolity,  the  dreamy 
unreality  and  worldliness,  which  we  suffer  to  grow 
upon  us  here,  will  give  us  entrance  into  the  kingdom 
of  God  ?  The  seaman  who  means  to  winter  in  the 
Arctic  circle  might  as  reasonably  go  with  a  single 
month's  provisions  and  clothes  suited  to  the  tropics. 
There  is  a  reason  and  a  law  in  things  ;  and  if  we  are 
not  assimilated  to  the  Spirit  of  Christ  now,  we  can 
have  no  part  in  His  kingdom.  If  now  our  interest,  and 
pursuits,  and  pleasures  are  all  found  in  what  gratifies 
selfishness  and  worldliness,  it  is  impossible  we  can 
find  a  place  in  that  kingdom  which  is  all  unselfishness 
and  unworldliness.  "  Be  not  deceived."  The  spiritual 
world  is  a  reality,  and  the  godliness  and  Christlikeness 
that  compose  it  must  also  be  realities.  Put  away  from 
you  the  fatuous  idea  that  things  will  somehow  come 
all  right,  and  that  your  character  will  adapt  itself  to 
changed  surroundings.  It  is  not  so ;  nothing  that 
defiles  can  find  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  God, 
but  only  those  who  are  '^  sanctified  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God." 


FORNICATION. 


10 


"All  things  are  lawful  unto  me,  but  all  things  are  not  expedient: 
all  things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  I  will  not  be  brought  under  the 
power  of  any.  Meats  for  the  belly,  and  the  belly  for  meats  :  but  God 
shall  destroy  both  it  and  them.  Now  the  body  is  not  for  fornication, 
but  for  the  Lord  ;  and  the  Lord  for  the  body.  And  God  hath  both 
raised  up  the  Lord,  and  will  also  raise  up  us  by  His  own  power. 
Know  ye  not  that  your  bodies  are  the  members  of  Christ  ?  shall  I 
then  take  the  members  of  Christ,  and  make  them  the  members  of  an 
harlot?  God  forbid.  What?  know  ye  not  that  he  which  is  joined 
to  an  harlot  is  one  body  ?  for  two,  saith  he,  shall  be  one  flesh.  But 
he  that  is  joined  unto  the  Lord  is  one  spirit.  Flee  fornication.  Every 
sin  that  a  man  doeth  is  without  the  body ;  but  he  that  committeth 
fornication  sinneth  against  his  own  body.  What  ?  know  3'e  not  that 
your  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  in  you,  which  ye 
have  of  God,  and  ye  are  not  your  own  ?  For  ye  are  bought  with  a 
price  :  therefore  glorify  God  in  your  body,  and  in  your  spirit,  which 
are  God's." — i  Cor.  vi.  12-20. 


X. 

FORNICATION, 

IN  remonstrating  with  the  Corinthians  for  their  liti- 
giousness,  Paul  was  forcibly  reminded  how  imper- 
fectly his  converts  understood  the  moral  requirements 
of  the  kingdom  of  God.  Apparently,  too,  he  had  reason 
to  believe  that  they  were  not  only  content  to  remain 
on  a  low  moral  plane,  but  actually  quoted  some  of  his 
own  favourite  sayings  in  defence  of  immoral  practices. 
After  warning  them  therefore  that  only  those  who  were 
sanctified  could  belong  to  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
specifying  certain  common  kinds  of  wrong-doing  which 
must  for  ever  be  excluded  from  that  kingdom,  he  goes 
on  to  explain  how  they  had  misapprehended  him  if 
they  thought  that  any  principle  of  his  could  give  colour 
to  immorality.  The  Corinthians  had  apparently  learned 
to  argue  that  if,  as  Paul  had  so  often  and  emphatically 
told  them,  all  things  were  lawful  to  them,  then  this 
commonest  of  Greek  indulgences  was  lawful;  if  ab- 
staining from  the  meat  which  had  been  killed  in  a 
heathen  temple  was  a  matter  of  moral  indifference 
which  Christians  might  or  might  not  practise,  as  they 
pleased,  then  this  other  common  accompaniment  of 
idolatry  was  also  a  matter  of  indifference  and  not  in 
Itself  wrong. 

To   understand   this    Corinthian  obliquity  of  moral 


1^8     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

vision  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  licentious  rites 
were  a  common  accompaniment  of  pagan  worship,  and 
especially  in  Corinth  idolatry  might  have  been  briefly 
described  as  the  performance  of  Balaam's  instructions 
to  the  Israelites  :  the  eating  of  things  sacrificed  to  idols 
and  the  committing  of  fornication.  The  temples  were 
often  scenes  of  revelry  and  debauchery  such  as  happily 
have  become  incredible  to  a  modern  mind.  But  not  at 
once  could  men  emerging  from  a  rehgion  so  slenderly 
connected  with  morality  apprehend  what  Christianity 
required  of  them.  When  they  abandoned  the  temple- 
worship,  were  they  also  to  abstain  from  eating  the 
flesh  offered  for  sale  in  the  open  market,  and  which  had 
first  been  sacrificed  to  an  idol  ?  Might  they  not  by 
partaking  of  such  flesh  become  partakers  in  the  sin  of 
laoiatry  ?  To  this  Paul  replied,  Do  not  too  scrupu- 
lously inquire  into  the  previous  history  of  your  dinner; 
the  meat  has  no  moral  taint ;  all  things  are  lawful  for 
you.  This  was  reasonable  ;  but  then  how  about  the 
other  accompaniment  of  idolatry  ?  Was  it  also  a  thing 
of  indifference  ?  Can  we  apply  the  same  reasoning 
to  it?  It  was  this  insinuation  which  called  forth 
the  emphatic  condemnation  which  Paul  utters  in  this 
paragraph. 

The  great  principle  of  Christian  liberty,  "  All  things 
are  lawful  for  me,"  Paul  now  sees  he  must  guard 
against  abuse  by  adding,  "  But  all  things  are  not  ex- 
pedient." The  law  and  its  modification  are  fully 
explained  in  a  subsequent  passage  of  the  Epistle 
(viii.  ;  X.  23,  etc.).  Here  it  may  be  enough  to  say 
that  Paul  seeks  to  impress  on  his  readers  that  the 
question  of  duty  is  not  answered  by  simply  ascertaining 
what  is  lawful  ;  we  must  also  ask  whether  the  practice 
or  act  contemplated  is  expedient.     Though  it  may  be 


VI.  12-20.]  FORNICATION.  149 

impossible  to  prove  that  this  or  that  practice  is  wrong 
in  every  case,  we  have  still  to  ask,  Does  it  advance 
what  is  good  in  us ;  is  its  bearing  on  society  good  or 
evil;  will  it  in  present  circumstances  and  in  the  in- 
stance we  contemplate  give  rise  to  misunderstandings 
and  evil  thoughts  ?  The  Christian  is  a  law  to  himself; 
he  has  an  internal  guide  that  sets  him  above  external 
rules.  Very  true  ;  but  that  guide  leads  all  those  who 
possess  it  to  a  higher  life  than  the  law  leads  to,  and 
proves  its  presence  by  teaching  a  man  to  consider, 
not  how  much  indulgence  he  may  enjoy  without  trans- 
gressing the  letter  of  the  law,  but  how  he  can  most 
advantageously  use  his  time  and  best  forward  what  is 
highest  in  himself  and  in  others. 

Again,  "  all  things  are  lawful  for  me ; "  all  things  are 
in  my  power.  Yes,  but  for  that  very  reason  ''  I  will 
not  be  brought  under  the  power  of  any."  "  The 
reasonable  use  of  my  liberty  cannot  go  the  length  of  in- 
volving my  own  loss  of  it."  ^  I  am  free  from  the  law ; 
I  will  not  on  that  account  become  the  slave  of  indul- 
gence. As  Carlyle  puts  it,  "enjoying  things  which 
are  pleasant — that  is  not  the  evil ;  it  is  the  reducing  of 
our  moral  self  to  slavery  by  them  that  is.  Let  a  man 
assert  v/ithal  that  he  is  king  over  his  habitudes ;  that 
he  could  and  would  shake  them  off  on  cause  shown  : 
this  is  an  excellent  law."  There  are  several  practices 
and  habits  which  no  one  would  call  immoral  or  sinful, 
but  which  enslave  a  man  quite  as  much  as  worse  habits. 
He  is  no  longer  a  free  man  ;  he  is  uneasy  and  restless, 
and  cannot  settle  to  his  work  until  he  obeys  the  craving 
he  has  created.  And  it  is  the  very  lavv'fulness  of  these 
indulgences  which  has  ensnared  him.  Had  they  been 
sinful,  the  Christian  man  would  not  have  indulged  in 

'  Godet. 


150     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

them ;  but  being  in  his  power,  they  have  now  assumed 
power  over  him.  They  have  power  to  compel  him  to 
waste  his  time,  his  money,  sometimes  even  his  health. 
He  alone  attains  the  true  dignity  and  freedom  of  the 
Christian  man  who  can  say,  with  Paul,  "  I  know  both 
how  to  be  full  and  to  be  hungry,  both  to  abound  and 
to  suffer  need  ; "  "  All  things  are  in  my  power,  but  I 
will  not  be  brought  under  the  power  of  any." 

Paul  then  proceeds  more  explicitly  to  apply  these 
principles  to  the  matter  in  hand.  The  Corinthians 
argued  that  if  meats  were  morally  indifferent,  a  man 
being  morally  neither  the  better  nor  the  worse  for 
eating  food  which  had  been  offered  in  an  idol's 
temple,  so  also  a  man  was  neither  better  nor  worse 
.    for  fornication.     To  expose  the  error  of  this  reasoning 

^  Paul  draws  a  remarkable  distinction  between  the  digest- 
ive, nutritive  organs  of  the  body  and  the  body  as  a 
whole.  Paul  believed  that  the  body  was  an  essential 
part  of  human  nature,  and  that  in  the  future  life  the 
natural  body  would  give  place  to  the  spiritual  body. 
He  believed  also  that  the  spiritual  body  was  connected 
with,  and  had  its  birthplace  in,  the  natural  body,  so 
that  the  body  we  now  wear  is  to  be  represented  by  that 
finer  and  more  spiritual  organism  we  are  hereafter  to  be 
clothed  in.  The  connection  of  that  future  body  with 
the  physical  world  and  its  dependence  on  material 
things  we  cannot  understand  ;  but  in  some  way  in- 
conceivable by  us  it  is  to  carry  on  the  identity  of  our 
present  body,  and  thereby  it  reflects  a  sacredness 
and  significance  on  this  body.     The  body  of  the  full- 

^  ,  grown  man  or  of  the  white-bearded  patriarch  is  very 
different  from  that  of  the  babe  in  its  mother's  arms, 
but  there  is  a  continuity  that  links  them  together  and 
gives  them  identity.  -  So  the  future  body  may  be  very 


vi.  12-20.]  FORNICATION.  151 

different  from  and  yet  the  same  as  the  present.  At  the 
same  time,  the  organs  which  merely  serve  for  the  main- 
tenance of  our  present  natural  body  will  be  unnecessary 
and  out  of  place  in  the  future  body,  which  is  spiritual 
in  its  origin  and  in  its  maintenance.  Paul  therefore 
distinguishes  between  the  organs  of  nutrition  and  that 
body  which  is  part  of  our  permanent  individuality,  and 
which  by  some  unimaginable  process  is  to  flower  into 
an  everlasting  body.  The  digestive  organs  of  the  body 
have  their  use  and  their  destiny,  and  the  body  as  a 
whole  has  its  use  and  destiny.  These  two  differ  from 
one  another  ;  and  if  you  are  to  argue  from  the  one  to 
the  other,  you  must  keep  in  view  this  distinction. 
''  Meats  for  the  belly  and  the  belly  for  meats  ;  and 
God  shall  destroy  both  it  and  them  :  but  the  body  is 
for  the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  for  the  body,  and  God 
shall  raise  up  the  one  as  He  has  raised  up  the  other." 
The  organs  of  nutrition  have  a  present  use ;  they  are 
made  for  meats,  and  have  a  natural  correspondence 
with  meats.  Any  meat  which  the  digestive  organs 
approve  is  allowable.  The  conscience  has  to  do  with 
meat  only  through  these  organs.  It  must  listen  to 
their  representations;  and  if  they  approve  of  certain 
qualities  and  quantities  of  food,  the  conscience  confirms 
this  decision:  approves  when  the  man  uses  the  food 
best  for  these  organs ;  disapproves  when  he  uses  con- 
sciously and  self-indulgently  what  is  bad  for  them. 
"  Meats  for  the  belly  and  the  belly  for  meats " — they 
claim  each  other  as  their  mutual,  God-appointed  counter- 
parts. By  eating  you  are  not  perverting  your  bodily 
organs  to  a  use  not  intended  for  them  ;  you  are  putting 
them  to  the  use  God  meant  them  to  serve. 

Besides,   these    organs    form   no  part  of  the  future 
spiritual    body.     They  pass  away  with  the  meats  for 


152     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

which  they  were  made.  God  shall  destroy  both  the 
meats  that  are  requisite  for  life  in  this  world,  and  the 
organs  needful  for  deriving  sustenance  from  them. 
They  serve  a  temporary  purpose,  like  the  houses  we 
live  in  and  the  clothes  we  wear ;  and  as  we  are  not 
morally  better  because  we  live  in  a  stone  house,  and 
not  in  a  brick  one,  or  because  we  wear  woollens,  and 
not  cotton — so  long  as  we  do  what  is  best  to  keep  us 
in  life — so  neither  is  there  any  moral  difference  in 
meats — a  remarkable  conclusion  for  a  Jew  to  come  to, 
whose  religion  had  taught  him  to  hold  so  many  forms 
of  food  in  abhorrence. 

But  the  body  as  a  whole — for  what  is  it  made  ? 
These  organs  of  nutrition  fulfil  their  function  when 
they  lead  you  to  eat  such  meat  as  sustains  you  in  life  ; 
when  does  the  body  fulfil  its  function  ?  What  is  its 
object  and  end  ?  For  what  purpose  have  we  a  body  ? 
Paul  is  never  afraid  to  suggest  the  largest  questions, 
neither  is  he  afraid  to  give  his  answer.  "The  body," 
he  says,  "  is  for  the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  for  the 
body.''  Here  also  there  is  a  mutual  correspondence 
and  fitness. 

"  The  body  is  for  the  Lord."  Paul  was  addressing 
Christians,  and  this  no  Christian  would  be  disposed 
to  deny.  Every  Christian  is  conscious  that  the  body 
would  not  fulfil  its  end  and  purpose  unless  it  were 
consecrated  to  the  Lord  and  informed  by  His  Spirit. 
The  organism  by  which  we  come  into  contact  with  the 
world  outside  ourselves  is  not  the  unwieldy,  hindering, 
irredeemable  partner  of  the  spirit,  but  is  designed  to 
be  the  vehicle  of  spiritual  faculties  and  the  efficient 
agent  of  our  Lord's  purposes.  It  must  not  be  looked 
upon  with  resentment,  pity,  or  contempt,  but  rather 
as  essential  to  our  human  nature  and  to  the  fulfilment 


vi.  12-20.]  FORNICATION.  i53 

of  the  Lord's  design  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world  and 
the  Head  of  humanity.  It  was  through  the  body  of 
the  Lord  that  the  great  facts  of  our  redemption  were 
accompUshed.  It  was  the  instrument  of  the  incarnation 
and  of  the  manifestation  of  God  among  men,  of  the 
death  and  the  resurrection  by  which  we  are  saved. 
And  as  in  His  own  body  Christ  was  incarnate  among 
men,  so  now  it  is  by  means  of  the  bodily  existence  and 
energies  of  His  people  on  earth  that  He  extends  His 
influence. 

The  body  then  is  for  the  Lord.  He  finds  in  it  His 
needed  instrument ;  without  it  He  cannot  accompHsh 
His  will.  And  the  Lord  is  for  the  body.  Without 
Him  the  body  cannot  develop  into  all  it  is  intended  to 
be.  It  has  a  great  future  as  well  as  the  soul.  Our 
adoption  as  God's  children  is,  in  Paul's  view,  incom- 
plete until  the  body  also  is  redeemed  and  has  fough': 
its  way  through  sickness,  base  uses,  death,  and  disso- 
lution into  likeness  to  the  glorified  body  of  Christ. 
This  bod}^  which  we  now  identify  with  ourselves,  and 
apart  from  which  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  ourselves, 
is  not  the  mere  temporary  lodging  of  the  soul,  which  in 
a  few  years  must  be  abandoned  ;  but  it  is  destined  to 
preserve  its  identity  through  all  coming  changes,  so 
that  it  will  be  recognisable  still  as  our  body.  But  this 
cannot  be  believed,  far  less  accomplished,  save  by  faith 
in  the  fact  that  God  has  raised  up  the  Lord  Jesus  and 
will  with  Him  raise  us  also.  Otherwise  the  future  of 
the  body  seems  brief  and  calamitous.  Death  seems 
plainly  to  say.  There  is  an  end  of  all  that  is  physical. 
Yes,  replies  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord,  in  death  there 
is  an  end  of  this  natural  body;  but  death  disengages 
the  spiritual  body  from  the  natural,  and  clothes  the 
spirit    in    a    more    fitting    garb.     Understand    this  we 


154     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

cannot,  any  more  than  we  understand  why  a  large  mass 
draws  to  itself  smaller  masses ;  but  believe  it  we  can  in 
presence  of  Christ's  resurrection. 

The  Lord  then  is  for  the  body,  because  in  the  Lord 
the  body  has  a  future  opened  to  it  and  present  con- 
nections and  uses  which  prepare  it  for  that  future.  It 
is  the  Spirit  of  Christ  who  is,  within  us,  the  earnest  of 
that  future,  and  who  forms  us  for  it,  inclining  us  while 
in  the  body  and  by  means  of  it  to  sow  to  the  Spirit 
and  thus  to  reap  life  everlasting.  Without  Christ  we 
cannot  have  this  Spirit,  nor  the  spiritual  body  He 
forms.  The  only  future  of  the  body  we  dare  to  look 
at  without  a  shudder  is  the  future  it  has  in  the  Lord. 
God  has  sent  Christ  to  secure  for  the  body  redemption 
from  the  fate  which  naturally  awaits  it,  and  apart  from 
Christ  it  has  no  outlook  but  the  worst.  The  Lord  is 
for  the  body,  and  as  well  might  we  try  to  sustain  the 
body  now  without  food  as  to  have  any  endurable  future 
for  it  without  the  Lord. 

But  if  the  body  is  thus  closely  united  to  Christ  in  its 
present  use  and  in  its  destiny,  if  its  proper  function 
and  fit  development  can  only  be  realized  by  a  true 
fellowship  with  Christ,  then  the  inference  is  self- 
evident  that  it  must  be  carefully  guarded  from  such 
uses  and  impurities  as  involve  rupture  with  Christ. 
"  Know  ye  not  that  your  bodies  are  the  members  of 
Christ  ?  Shall  I  then  take  the  members  of  Christ  and 
make  them  the  members  of  an  harlot  ?  God  forbid." 
The  Christian  is  one  spirit  with  Christ.  There  is  a 
real  community  of  spiritual  life  between  them.  It  is 
the  spirit  which  possessed  Christ  which  now  possesses 
the  Christian.  He  has  the  same  aims,  the  same 
motives,  the  same  view  of  life,  the  same  hope,  as  his 
Lord.     It  is  in  Christ  he  seeks  to  live,  and  he  has  no 


vi.  12-20.]  FORNICATION.  155 

Stronger  desire  than  to  be  used  for  His  purposes. 
That  Christ  would  use  him  as  He  used  the  members 
of  His  own  body  while  on  earthy  that  there  might  be 
the  same  direct  influence  and  moving  powder  of  the 
Lord's  Spirit,  the  same  ready  and  instinctive  response 
to  the  Lord's  will,  the  same  solidarity  between  himself 
and  the  Lord  as  between  Christ's  body  and  Christ's 
Spirit — this  is  the  Christian's  desire.  To  have  his 
body  a  member  of  Christ — this  is  his  happiness.  To  be 
one  in  will  with  Him.  who  has  brought  by  His  own 
goodness  the  light  of  heaven  into  the  darkness  of  earth, 
to  learn  to  know  Him  and  to  love  Him  by  serving  Him 
and  by  measuring  His  love  with  all  the  needs  of  earth 
— this  is  his  Hfe.  To  be  so  united  to  Christ  in  all  that 
is  deepest  in  his  nature  that  he  knows  he  can  never 
be  separated  from  Him,  but  must  go  forward  to  the 
happy  destiny  which  his  Lord  already  enjoys — this  is 
the  Christian's  joy;  and  it  is  made  possible  to  every 
man. 

Possible  to  every  man  is  this  personal  union  to 
Christ,  but  to  be  united  thus  in  one  Spirit  to  Christ 
and  at  the  same  time  to  be  united  to  impurity  is  for 
ever  impossible.  To  be  one  with- Christ  inspirit  and 
at  the  same  time  to  be  one  in  body  with  what  is 
spiritually  defiled  is  impossible,  and  the  very  idea  is 
monstrous.  Devotedness  to  Christ  is  possible,  but  it 
is  incompatible  with  any  act  which  means  that  we 
become  one  in  body  with  what  is  morally  polluted. 
If  the  Christian  is  as  truly  a  member  of  Christ's  body 
as  were  the  hands  and  e^^es  of  the  body  He  wore  on 
earth,  then  the  mind  shrinks,  as  from  blasphemy,  from 
following  out  the  thought  of  Paul.  And  if  any  frivolous 
Corinthian  still  objected  that  such  acts  went  no  deeper 
than    the   eating   of  food    ceremonially    unclean,    that 


156     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

they  belonged  to  the  body  that  was  to  be  destroyed, 
Paul  says,  It  is  not  so ;  these  acts  are  full  of  the 
deepest  moral  significance :  they  were  intended  by  God 
to  be  the  expression  of  inward  unions  and  they  have 
that  significance  whether  you  shut  your  eyes  to  it 
or  not. 

And  this  is  what  Paul  means  when  he  goes  on  to 
say,  "  Every  sin  that  a  man  doeth  is  without  the  body ; 
but  he  that  committeth  fornication  sinneth  against  his 
own  body."  He  does  not  mean  that  this  is  the  only 
sin  committed  by  the  body,  for  of  many  other  sins  the 
body  is  the  agent,  as  in  murder,  lying,  blasphemy, 
robbery,  and  thieving.  Neither  does  he  mean  that  this 
is  the  only  sin  to  which  bodily  appetite  instigates,  for 
gluttony  and  drunkenness  equally  take  their  rise  in 
bodily  appetite.  But  he  means  that  this  is  the  only 
sin  in  which  the  present  connection  of  the  body  with 
Christ  and  its  future  destiny  in  Him  are  directly  sinned 
against.  This  is  the  only  sin,  he  means,  which  by  its 
very  nature  alienates  the  body  from  Christ,  its  proper 
Partner.  Other  sins  indirectly  involve  separation  from 
Christ ;  this  explicitly  and  directly  transfers  allegiance, 
and  sunders  our  union  with  Him.  By  this  sin  a  man 
detaches  himself  from  Christ ;  he  professes  to  be  united 
to  what  is  incompatible  with  Christ. 

These  weighty  reasonings  and  warm  admonitions, 
into  which  Paul  throws  his  whole  energy,  are  concluded 
by  the  statement  of  a  twofold  truth  which  is  of  much 
wider  application  than  to  the  matter  in  hand  :  "  Ye 
are  bought  with  a  price  to  be  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  We  are  bought  with  a  price,  and  are  no  longer 
our  own.  The  realities  underlying  these  words  are 
gladly  owned  in  every  Christian  consciousness.  God 
has  caused  us  to  recognise  how  truly  we  are  His  by 


vi .  1 2-20. 1  FOR  NIC  A  TION.  1 5  7 

showing  us  that  He  has  grudged  nothing  which  can 
restore  us  fully  to  Him.  He  has  bought  us,  not  with 
any  of  those  prices  the  wealthy  can  pay  without 
sacrifice  and  without  profound  interest  and  feeling,  but 
with  that  price  which  is  coined  and  issued  by  love, 
which  carries  in  it  the  token  and  pledge  of  love,  and 
which  therefore  wins  us  wholly.  In  our  relations  with 
God  we  have  never  to  do  with  any  merely  formal 
transaction  performed  for  the  sake  of  keeping  up  appear- 
ances, saving  the  proprieties  or  satisfying  the  letter  of 
law,  but  always  with  what  is  necessary  in  the  nature 
of  things,  with  w^hat  is  real,  with  the  very  God  of 
truth,  the  centre  and  source  of  all  reality.  God  has 
made  us  His  own,  has  won  our  hearts  and  wills  to 
Himself,  by  manifesting  His  love  in  ways  that  touch 
and  move  us,  and  for  purposes  absolutely  needful. 
God  means  that  our  attachment  to  Him  should  be  real 
and  permanent,  and  He  has  based  it  on  the  most 
reasonable  grounds.  He  means  that  we  should  be 
His,  not  only  because  we  are  His  creatures  or  because 
He  has  an  indefeasible  right  to  our  service  as  the 
source  of  our  life ;  but  He  means  that  our  hearts 
should  be  His,  and  that  we  should  be  drawn  to  live 
and  labour  for  His  ends,  convinced  in  our  reason  that 
this  is  our  happiness  and  attracted  b}^  His  love  to 
serve  Him.  He  means  this  ;  and  accordingly  He  has 
bought  us,  has  given  us  reason  to  become  His,  has 
made  such  advances  as  ought  to  win  us  has  not 
grudged  to  show  His  earnest  desire  for  our  love  by 
Himself  making  sacrifices  and  declaring  that  He  loves 
us.  It  is  a  thought  the  humble  heart  can  scarcely 
endure  that  it  is  loved  by  God,  that  it  has  been 
countea  so  precious  in  God's  sight  that  Divine  love  and 
sacrifice    should   have  been   spent  on    its  restoration. 


158     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

It  is  a  thought  that  overwhelms  the  beheving  heart, 
but,  beheved  in,  it  wins  the  soul  eternally  to  God. 

We  are  not  our  own  ;  we  belong  to  Him  who  has 
loved  us  most ;  and  His  love  will  be  satisfied  when  we 
suffer  Him  to  dwell  in  us,  so  that  we  shall  be  His 
temples,  and  shall  glorify  Him  in  body  and  in  spirit. 
God  claims  our  body  as  well  as  our  spirit ;  He  has 
a  purpose  for  our  body  as  well  as  for  our  spirit.  Our 
body  is  to  glorify  Him  in  the  future  and  now :  in 
tlie  future,  by  exhibiting  how  the  Divine  wisdom  has 
triumphed  over  all  that  threatens  the  body,  and  has 
used  all  the  present  bodily  experiences  for  preparing 
a  permanent  spiritual  embodiment  of  all  human  faculties 
and  joys ;  and  now,  by  putting  itself  at  the  disposal  of 
God  for  the  accomplishment  of  His  Vv^ill.  We  glorify 
God  by  allowing  Him  to  fulfil  His  purpose  of  love  in 
creating  us.  What  that  purpose  is  we  cannot  wholly 
know;  but  trusting  ourselves  to  His  love,  we  can,  by 
obeying  Hmi,  have  it  more  and  more  accomplished  in 
us.  And  it  is  the  consciousness  that  we  are  God's 
temples  which  constantly  incites  us  to  live  worthily  of 
Him.  To  say  that  we  are  temples  of  God  is  not  to  use 
a  figure  of  speech.  It  is  the  temple  of  stone  that  is 
the  figure;  the  true  dwelling-place  of  God  is  man.  In 
nothing  can  God  reveal  Himself  as  He  can  in  man. 
Through  nothing  else  can  He  express  so  much  of  what 
is  truly  Divine.  It  is  not  a  building  of  stone  which 
forms  a  fit  temple  for  God  ;  it  is  not  even  the  heaven 
of  heavens.  In  material  nature  only  a  small  part  of 
God  can  be  seen  and  known.  It  is  in  man,  able  to 
choose  what  is  morally  good,  able  to  resist  temptation, 
to  make  sacrifices  for  worthy  ends,  to  determine  his 
own  character;  it  is  in  man,  whose  own  will  is  his 
law,  and   who  is   not   the   mere   mechanical  agent  of 


VI.  I2-20.]  FORNICATION.  159 

another's  will,  that  God  finds  a  worthy  temple  for 
Himself.  Through  3^ou  God  can  express  and  reveal 
what  is  best  in  Himself  Your  love  is  sustained  by 
His,  and  reveals  His.  Your  approval  of  what  is  pure 
and  hatred  of  impurity  has  its  source  in  His  hoHness, 
and  by  transforming  you  into  His  own  image  He 
discloses  Himself  as  truly  dwelling  and  living  within 
you.  Where  is  God  to  be  found  and  to  be  known 
if  not  in  men  ?  Where  can  His  presence  and  Divine 
goodness  and  reality  be  more  distinctly  manifest  than 
in  Christ  and  those  who  are  in  any  degree  like  Him  ? 
It  is  in  men  that  the  unseen  Divine  Spirit  manifests 
His  nature  and  His  work.  But  if  so,  what  a  profana- 
tion is  it  when  we  take  this  body,  which  is  built  to  be 
His  temple,  and  put  it  to  uses  which  it  Vv^ere  blasphemous 
to  associate  with  God  !  Let  us  rather  find  our  joy  in 
realizing  the  ideal  set  before  us  by  Paul,  in  keeping 
ourselves  pure  as  God's  temples  and  in  glorifying  Him 
in  our  body  and  in  our  spirit. 


MARRIAGE. 


II 


"  Now  concerning  the  things  whereof  ye  wrote  unto  me :  It  Is  good 
for  a  man  not  to  touch  a  woman.  Neve'^heless,  to  avoid  fornication, 
let  every  man  have  his  own  wife,  and  let  every  woman  have  her  own 
husband.  Let  the  husband  render  unto  the  wife  due  benevolence  : 
and  likewise  also  the  wife  unto  the  husband.  The  wife  hath  not 
power  of  her  own  body,  but  the  husband  :  and  likewise  also  the 
husband  hath  not  power  of  his  own  body,  but  the  wife.  Defraud  ye 
not  one  the  other,  except  it  be  with  consent  for  a  time,  that  ye  may 
give  yourselves  to  fasting  and  prayer ;  and  come  together  again,  that 
Satan  tempt  you  not  for  your  incontinency.  But  I  speak  this  by 
permission,  and  not  of  commandment.  For  I  would  that  all  men 
were  even  as  I  myself.  But  every  man  hath  his  proper  gift  of  God 
one  after  this  manner,  and  another  after  that.  I  say  therefore  to  the 
unmarried  and  widows,  It  is  good  for  them  if  they  abide  even  as  I. 
But  if  they  cannot  contain,  let  them  marry :  for  it  is  better  to  marry 
than  to  burn.  And  unto  the  married  I  command,  yet  not  I,  but  the 
Lord,  Let  not  the  wife  depart  from  her  husband  :  but  and  if  she 
depart,  let  her  remain  unmarried,  or  be  reconciled  to  her  husband  : 
and  let  not  the  husband  put  away  his  wife.  But  to  the  rest  speak  I, 
not  the  Lord  :  If  any  brother  hath  a  wife  that  believeth  not,  and  she 
be  pleased  to  dwell  with  him,  let  him  not  put  her  away.  And  the 
woman  which  hath  an  husband  that  believeth  not,  and  if  he  be 
pleased  to  dwell  with  her,  let  her  not  leave  him.  For  the  unbelieving 
husband  is  sanctified  by  the  wife,  and  the  unbelieving  wife  is  sanctified 
by  the  husband  :  else  were  your  children  unclean ;  but  now  are  they 
holy.  But  if  the  unbelieving  depart,  let  him  depart.  A  brother  or  a 
sister  is  not  under  bondage  in  such  cases  :  but  God  hath  called  us  to 
peace.  For  v.hat  knowest  thou,  O  wife,  whether  thou  shalt  save  thy 
husband?  or  how  knowest  thou,  O  man,  whether  thou  shalt  save 
thy  wife?  But  as  God  hath  distributed  to  every  man,  as  the  Lord 
hath  called  every  one,  so  let  hifn  walk.  And  so  ordain  1  in  all 
churches.  Is  any  man  called  being  circumcised  ?  let  him  not  become 
uncircumcised.  Is  any  called  in  uncircumcision  ?  let  him  not  be 
circumcised.  Circumcision  is  nothing,  and  uncircumcision  is  nothing, 
but  the  keeping  of  the  commandments  of  God.     Let  every  man  abide 


in  the  same  calling  wherein  he  was  called.     Art  thou  called  being  a 

servant  ?  care  not  for  it  :   but  if  thou  mayest  be  made  free,  use  it 

rather.     For  he   that  is  called  in  the  Lord,  being  a  servant,  is  the 

Lord's  freeman  :  likewise  also  he  that  is  called,  being  free,  is  Christ's 

servant.     Ye  are  bought  with  a  price ;  be  not  ye  the  servants  of  men. 

Brethren,  let  every  man,  wherein   he  is  called,  therein  abide  with 

God.     Now  concerning  virgins  I  have  no  commandment  of  the  Lord  : 

yet  I  give  my  judgment,  as  one  that  hath  obtained  mercy  of  the  Lord 

to  be  faithful,     I  suppose  therefore  that  this  is  good  for  the  present 

distress,  I  say,  that  it  is  good  for  a  man  so  to  be.     Art  thou  bound 

unto  a  wife  ?  seek  not  to  be  loosed.     Art  thou  loosed  from  a  wife  ? 

seek  not  a  wife.     But  and  if  thou  marry,  thou  hast  not  sinned  ;  and 

if  a  virgin  marry,  she  hath  not  sinned.     Nevertheless  such  shall  have 

trouble  in  the  flesh  :  but  I  spare  you.     But  this  I  say,  brethren,  the 

time  is  short  :   it  remaineth,  that  both  they  that  have  wives  be  as 

though  they  had  none  ;  and  they  that  weep,  as  though  they  wept 

not;   and  they  that  rejoice,  as  though  they  rejoiced  not;    and  they 

that  buy,  as  though  they  possessed  not ;  and  they  that  use  this  world, 

as  not  abusing  it :  for  the  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away.     But 

I  would  have  you  without  carefulness.     He  that  is  unmarried  careth 

for  the  things  that  belong  to  the  Lord,  how  he  may  please  the  Lord  : 

but  he  that  is  married  careth  for  the  things  that  are  of  the  world,  how 

he  may  please  his  wife.     There  is  difference  also  between  a  wife  and 

a  virgin.     The  unmarried  woman  careth  for  the  things  of  the  Lord, 

that  she  may  be   holy  both  in  body  and  in  spirit:   but  she  that  is 

married  careth  for  the  things  of  the  world,  how  she  may  please  her 

husband.     And  this  I  speak  for  your  own  profit ;  not  that  I  may  cast 

a  snare  upon  you,  but  for  that  which  is  comely,  and  that  ye  may 

attend   upon  the   Lord  without   distraction.     But  if  any  man  think 

that  he  bchavcth  himself  uncomely  toward  his  virgin,  if  she  pass  the 

flower  of  her  age,  and  need  so  require,  let  him  do  what  he  will,  he 

sinneth  not :  let  them  marry.     Nevertheless  he  that  standeth  stedfasl 

in  his  heart,  having  no  necessity,  but  hath  power  over  his  own  will, 

and  hath  so  decreed  in  his  heart  that  he  will  keep  his  virgin,  doeth 

well.     So  then  he  that  giveth  her  in  marriage  doeth  well;    but  he 

'.hat  giveth  her  not  in  marriage  doeth  better.     The  wife  is  bound  by 

v.he  law  as  long  as  her  husband  liveth  ;  but  if  her  husband  be  dead, 

she  is  at  liberty  to  be  married  to  whom  she  will ;  only  in  the  Lord. 

But  she  is  happier  if  she  so  abide,  after  my  judgment:  and  I  think 

also  that  I  have  the  Spirit  of  God." — I  Cor.  vii.  I-40. 


XI. 

MARRIAGE. 

THERE  are  two  preliminary  considerations  which 
throw  some  light  on  this  much-contested  passage. 
First,  Paul  had  to  speak  about  marriage  as  he  found  it, 
as  it  existed  among  those  to  whom  he  wished  to  be  of 
service.  Hence  he  makes  no  allusion  to  that  which 
among  ourselves  is  the  main  argument  for,  or  at  least 
the  one  only  justifying  motive  to,  marriage,  viz.,  love. 
Marriage  is  treated  here  from  a  lower  point  of  view 
than  it  would  have  been  had  this  letter  been  originally 
written  for  Englishmen.  The  Church  to  which  it  was 
addressed  was  composite.  Jews,  Greeks,  and  Romans, 
in  what  proportions  it  is  not  easy  to  say,  brought  their 
peculiar  and  national  usages  into  it.  In  the  marriages 
of  the  Jews  and  Greeks,  love  had,  as  a  rule,  little  to  do. 
The  marriage  was  arranged  by  the  parents  of  the  con- 
tracting parties. 

"  Faces  strange  and  tongues  unknown 
Make  us  by  a  bid  their  own," 

is  the  remonstrance  of  the  Greek  maiden  against  the 
unnatural  custom  which  prevailed  of  allowing  no 
intimacy,  and  scarcely  any  real  acquaintance,  prior  to 
marriage.  The  lack  of  warmth  and  personal  interest 
which  characterizes  the  Greek  plays  arises  mainly  from 
the   circumstance   that  among   the   Greeks  there   was 


i66     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

absolutely  no  such  thing  as  that  love  prior  to  marriage 
on  which  even  our  best  works  of  fiction  uniformly 
depend  for  their  interest.  Among  the  Romans  there 
was  none  of  this  Eastern  seclusion  of  women,  and 
but  for  other  causes  marriage  among  this  section  of 
the  Corinthian  population  might  have  served  as  an 
example  to  the  rest. 

Secondly,  it  is  to  be  considered  that  not  only  had 
Pa\il  to  speak  of  marriage  as  he  found  it,  but  also  that 
he  was  here  only  giving  answers  to  some  special 
questions,  and  not  discussing  the  whole  subject  in  all 
its  bearings.  There  might  be  other  points  which  to  his 
mind  seemed  equally  important ;  but  his  advice  not 
having  been  asked  about  these,  he  passes  them  by. 
He  introduces  the  subject  in  a  manner  fitted  to  remind 
us  that  he  has  no  intention  of  propounding  his  views 
on  marriage  in  a  complete  and  systematic  form  :  **  Now 
concerning  the  things  whereof  ye  wrote  unto  me." 
There  had  arisen  in  the  Corinthian  Church  certain 
scruples  about  marriage ;  and  as  the  Church  was  com- 
posed of  persons  who  would  naturally  take  very  dif- 
ferent views  on  the  subject,  these  scruples  might  not  be 
easily  removed.  Among  the  Jews  it  was  believed  that 
marriage  was  a  duty,  "  so  m.uch  so  that  he  who  at  the 
age  of  twenty  had  not  married  was  considered  to  have 
sinned."  Among  the  Gentiles  the  tendency  to  celibacy 
was  so  strong  that  it  was  considered  necessary  to 
counteract  it  by  legal  enactment.  In  a  community 
previously  disposed  to  take  such  opposite  views  of 
marriage  difficulties  were  sure  to  arise.  Those  who 
were  predisposed  to  disparage  the  married  state 
would  throw  contempt  upon  it  as  a  mere  concession  to 
the  flesh ;  they  apparently  even  urged  that,  Christians 
being   new    creatures,    their   whole   previous  relation- 


vii.  1-40.]  MARRIAGE.  167 

ships   were   dissolved.      To   Paul   therefore  appeal  is 
made. 

The  questions  referred  to  Paul  resolve  themselves 
into  two  :  whether  the  unmarried  are  to  marry,  and 
whether  the  married  are  to  continue  to  live  together. 

In  reply  to  the  former  question,  whether  the  un- 
married are  to  marry,  he  first  states  the  duty  of 
unmarried  persons  themselves  (in  vers.  2,  7 — 9) ;  and 
afterwards  (in  vers.  25 — 39)  he  explains  the  duty  of 
parents  to  their  unmarried  daughters. 

I.  First  then  we  have  Paul's  counsel  to  the  un- 
married. This  is  summed  up  in  the  words,  "  I  say 
therefore  to  the  unmarried  and  widows.  It  is  good 
for  them  if  they  abide  even  as  I ; "  that  is  to  say,  if 
they  remain  unmarried,  Paul  being  probably  the  only 
unmarried  Apostle.  But  if  any  man's  temperament  be 
such  that  he  cannot  settle  undistractedly  to  his  work 
without  marrying ;  if  he  is  restless  and  ill  at  ease,  and 
full  of  natural  cravings  which  make  him  think  much  of 
marriage,  and  make  him  feel  sure  he  would  be  less 
distracted  in  married  life — then,  says  Paul,  let  such  an 
one  by  all  means  marry.  But  do  not  misunderstand 
me,  he  says  ;  this  is  permission  I  am  giving  you,  not 
commandment.  I  do  not  say  you  must  or  ought  to 
marry  ;  I  say  you  may^  and  in  certain  circumstances 
ought.  Those  among  you  who  say  a  man  sins  if  he  do 
not  marry,  talk  nonsense.  Those  among  you  who  feel 
a  quiet  superiority  because  you  are  married,  and  think 
of  unmarried  people  as  undergraduates  who  have  not 
attained  a  degree  equal  to  yours,  are  much  mistaken  if 
you  suppose  that  I  am  of  your  mind.  When  I  say, 
"  Let  every  man  have  his  own  wife,  and  let  every 
woman  have  her  own  husband,"  I  do  not  mean  that 
every  man  who  wishes  to  come  as  near  perfection  as 


l68     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

possible  must  go  and  marry,  but  what  I  speak  I  speak 
by  way  of  permission ;  I  permit  every  man  to  marry 
who  dehberately  beUeves  he  will  be  the  better  of 
marrying.  So  far  from  thinking  that  every  man  ought 
to  marry,  or  that  married  men  have  somehow  the 
advantage  over  single  men,  I  think  the  very  opposite, 
and  would  that  all  men  were  even  as  I  myself,  only  I 
know  that  to  many  men  it  is  not  so  easy  as  it  is  to  me 
to  live  unmarried ;  and  therefore  I  do  not  advise  them 
to  a  single  life. 

But  this  advice  of  Paul's  proceeds,  not  from  any 
ascetic  tendency,  but  from  the  practical  bias  of  his  mind. 
He  had  no  idea  that  marriage  was  a  morally  inferior 
condition ;  on  the  contrary,  he  saw  in  it  the  most 
perfect  symbol  of  the  union  of  Christ  and  the  Church. 
But  he  thought  that  unmarried  men  were  likely  to  be 
most  available  for  the  work  of  Christ ;  and  therefore  he 
could  not  but  wish  it  possible,  though  he  knew  it  was 
not  possible,  that  all  unmarried  men  should  remain 
unmarried. 

His  reason  for  thinking  that  unmarried  men  would 
be  more  efficient  in  the  service  of  Christ  is  given  in 
the  thirty-second  and  thirty-third  verses  :  "  He  that 
is  unmarried  careth  for  the  things  that  belong  to  the 
Lord,  how  he  may  please  the  Lord  ;  but  he  that  is 
married  careth  for  the  things  that  are  of  the  world, 
how  he  may  please  his  wife,"  an  opinion  quite 
similar  to  that  which  Lord  Bacon  pronounced  when 
he  said,  "  Certainly  the  best  works,  and  of  greatest 
merit  for  the  public,  have  proceeded  from  the  un- 
married or  childless  men,  who  both  in  affection  and 
means  have  married  and  endowed  the  public."  Given 
two  men  with  equal  desire  to  serve  Christ,  but  the 
one  married  and    the  other   unmarried,  it  is    obvious 


vii.  1-40.]  MARRIAGE.  169 

that  the  unmarried  man  has  more  means  and  opportuni- 
ties of  service  than  he  who  has  a  large  family  to  support. 
No  doubt  a  good  wife  may  stimulate  a  man  to  liberality, 
and  may  greatly  increase  his  tenderness  towards  de- 
serving objects  of  charity  ;  but  the  fact  remains  that 
he  who  has  seven  or  ten  mouths  to  fill  cannot  have  so 
much  to  give  away  as  if  he  had  but  himself  to  support. 
Then,  again,  however  alike  in  sentiment  husband  and 
wife  may  be,  there  are  sacrifices  which  a  married  man 
may  not  make.  With  the  unmarried  man  there  need 
be  no  other  consideration  than  this  :  How  can  I  best 
serve  Christ  ?  With  the  married  man  there  must 
always  be  other  considerations.  He  cannot  ignore  or 
forswear  the  ties  with  which  he  has  bound  himself; 
he  cannot  act  as  if  he  had  only  himself  to  consider. 
The  unmarried  man  has  life  and  the  world  before  him, 
and  may  choose  the  most  ideal  and  perlect  style  of  life 
he  pleases.  He  may  seek  to  realize,  as  many  in  recent 
times  have  realized,  the  exact  apostolic  idea  of  how  it 
is  best  to  spend  a  human  life.  He  may  choose  to 
devote  himself  to  the  elevation  of  some  one  class  of  the 
community,  or  he  is  free  to  go  to  the  ends  of  the  earth 
to  preach  the  Gospel.  He  has  no  one  thing  to  consider 
but  how  he  may  please  the  Lord.  But  the  married 
man  has  limited  his  range  of  choice,  and  has  cut  himself 
off  from  some  at  least  of  the  most  influential  ways  of 
doing  good  in  the  world.  It  is  therefore  to  the 
unmarried  that  the  State  looks  for  the  manning  of  the 
army  and  navy ;  it  is  to  the  unmarried  that  society 
looks  for  the  nursing  of  the  sick  and  for  the  filling  of 
posts  of  danger  ;  and  it  is  on  the  unmarried  that  the 
Church  depends  for  a  large  part  of  her  work,  from 
teaching  in  Sunday-schools  to  occupying  unhealthy 
and  precarious  outposts  in  the  mission  field. 


I70     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

But  while  Paul  makes  no  scruple  of  saying  that  for 
many  purposes  the  unmarried  man  is  the  more  avail- 
able, he  says  also,  Beware  how  you  individually  think 
yourself  a  hero,  and  able  to  forego  marriage.  Beware 
lest,  by  choosing  a  part  which  you  are  not  fit  for,  you 
give  Satan  an  advantage  over  you,  and  expose  yourself 
to  constant  temptation,  and  pass  through  life  distracted 
by  needless  deprivation.  "  Far  be  it  from  me,"  says 
Paul,  "to  cast  a  snare  upon  you,"  to  invite  or  encourage 
you  into  a  position  against  which  your  nature  would 
unceasingly  rebel,  to  prompt  you  to  attempt  that  for 
which  you  are  constitutionally  unfit,  and  thereby  to 
make  your  life  a  chronic  temptation.  "  Every  man 
hath  his  proper  gift  of  God,  one  after  this  manner, 
another  after  that."  And  if  any  man  fancies  that, 
because  there  are  advantages  in  being  unmarried, 
therefore  that  is  the  Dest  state  for  him,  or  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  any  man  fancies  that,  because  most  men 
seem  to  find  great  happiness  in  marriage,  he  also  needs 
marriage  to  complete  his  happiness,  both  of  these  men 
leave  out  of  account  that  which  is  chiefly  to  be  taken 
into  account,  viz.,  the  special  temperament,  calling, 
and  opportunities  of  each. 

The  common-sense  and  wise  counsel  of  this  chapter 
are  sometimes  half  jestingly  put  aside  by  the  idle 
remark  that  Paul,  being  himself  unmarried,  takes  a 
biassed  view  of  the  subject.  But  the  chief  merit  of  the 
whole  passage  is  that  Paul  positively  and  expressly 
declines  to  judge  others  by  himself,  or  himself  by 
others.  What  is  good  for  one  man  in  this  respect 
is  not  good,  he  says,  for  another ;  every  man  must 
ascertain  for  himself  what  is  best  for  him.  And  this 
is  precisely  what  is  lacking  in  popular  feeling  and  talk 
about  marriage.     People  start  in  life,  and  are  encour- 


vii.  1-40.]  MARRIAGE.  171 

aged  to  start  in  life,  on  the  understanding  that  their 
happiness  cannot  be  complete  till  they  are  married  ; 
that  they  are  in  some  sense  incomplete  and  unsatisfac- 
tory members  of  society  until  they  marry.  Now,  on 
the  contrary,  people  should  be  taught  not  to  follow  one 
another  like  sheep,  nor  to  suppose  that  they  will 
infallibly  find  happiness  where  others  have  found  it. 
They  should  be  taught  to  consider  their  own  make  and 
bent,  and  not  to  take  for  granted  that  the  cravings  they 
feel  for  an  indefinite  addition  to  their  happiness  will 
be  satisfied  by  marriage.  They  should  be  taught  that 
marriage  is  but  one  out  of  many  paths  to  happiness, 
that  it  is  possible  celibacy  may  be  the  straightest 
path  to  happiness  for  them,  and  that  many  persons 
are  so  constituted  that  they  are  likely  to  be  much  more 
useful  unmarried  than  married.  They  should,  above 
all,  be  taught  that  human  life  is  very  wide  and  multi- 
farious, and  that,  to  effect  His  ends,  God  needs  persons 
of  all  kinds  and  conditions,  so  that  to  prejudge  the 
direction  in  which  our  usefulness  and  happiness  are  to 
run  is  to  shut  God  out  of  our  life.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  opposite  way  of  speaking  of  marriage 
as  the  great  settlement  in  life  has  introduced  much 
misery  and  uselessness  into  the  lives  of  thousands. 

It  is  this  then  which  not  only  signally  illustrates 
the  judicial  balance  of  the  Apostle's  mind,  but  at  the 
same  time  gives  us  the  key  to  the  whole  chapter.  The 
capacity  for  celibacy  is  a  gift  of  God  to  him  who 
possesses  it,  a  gift  which  may  be  of  eminent  service, 
but  to  which  no  moral  value  can  be  attached.  There 
are  many  such  diversities  of  gifts  among  men,  gifts  of 
immense  value,  but  which  may  belong  to  bad  as  well 
as  to  good  men.  For  example,  two  men  travel  together  ; 
the  one  can  go  without  food  for  twelve  hours,  the  other 


172     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

cannot,  but  if  you  repair  his  strength  every  five  hours, 
he  can  go  through  as  much  fatigue  as  the  other.  This 
power  of  abstinence  is  a  vakiable  gift,  and  has  frequently 
enabled  men  in  certain  circumstances  to  save  life  or 
perform  other  important  service.  But  no  one  would 
dream  of  arguing  that  because  a  man  possessed  this 
gift,  he  was  therefore  a  better  man  than  his  less  endur- 
ing friend.  Unfortunately,  so  simple  a  distinction  has 
not  been  kept  in  view.  In  the  most  powerful  Church 
in  the  world  celibacy  is  regarded  as  a  virtue  in  itself, 
so  that  men  with  no  natural  gift  for  it  have  been 
encouraged  to  aim  at  it,  with  what  results  we  need  not 
say. 

But  while  there  is  no  virtue  in  remaining  unmarried, 
there  is  virtue  in  remaining  unmarried  for  the  sake  of 
serving  Christ  better.  Some  persons  are  kept  single 
by  mere  selfishness  ;  having  been  accustomed  to  orderly 
and  quiet  ways,  they  shrink  from  having  their  personal 
peace  broken  in  upon  by  the  claims  of  children.  Some 
shrink  from  being  tied  down  to  any  definite  settlement 
m  life ;  they  like  to  feel  unencumbered,  -and  free  to 
shift  their  tent  at  short  notice.  Some  dread  responsi- 
bility and  the  little  and  great  anxieties  of  family  life. 
A  few  have  the  feeling  of  the  miser,  and  prefer  the 
possibility  of  many  conceivable  marriages  to  the  actual- 
ity of  one.  For  such  persons  to  make  a  virtue  of  their 
celibacy  is  absurd.  But  all  honour  to  those  who 
recognise  that  they  are  called  to  some  duty  they  could 
not  discharge  if  married  I  All  honour  to  that  eldest  son 
of  an  orphaned  family  who  sees  that  it  is  not  for  him 
to  please  himself,  but  to  work  for  those  who  have  none 
to  look  to  but  him  !  There  are  here  and  there  persons 
who  from  the  highest  motives  decline  marriage : 
persons  conscious  of  some  hereditary  weakness,  phy- 


vii.  1-40.]  MARRIAGE.  173 

sical  or  mental ;  persons  who,  on  a  deliberate  survey  of 
human  life,  have  seemed  to  themselves  to  recognise 
that  they  are  called  to  a  kind  of  service  with  which 
marriage  is  incompatible.  We  may  be  thankful  that 
in  our  own  country  and  time  there  are  men  and  women 
of  sufficiently  heroic  mould  to  exemplify  the  wisdom  of 
the  Apostle's  counsel.  Such  devotion  is  not  for  every 
one.  There  are  persons  of  a  soft  and  domestic  tempera- 
ment who  need  the  supports  and  comforts  of  home-life, 
and  nothing  can  be  more  cruel  and  ill-advised  than  to 
encourage  such  persons  to  turn  their  Hfe  into  a  channel 
in  which  it  was  never  intended  to  run.  But  it  is  equally 
to  be  lamented  that,  where  there  are  women  quite 
capable  of  a  life  of  self-devotion  to  some  noble  work, 
they  should  be  discouraged  from  such  a  life  by  the  false, 
and  foolish,  and  petty  notions  of  society,  and  should  be 
taught  to  believe  that  the  only  way  in  which  they  can 
serve  their  Lord  is  by  caring  for  the  affairs  of  a  single 
household.  No  calling  is  nobler  or  more  worthy  of 
a  Christian  woman  than  marriage ;  but  it  is  not  the 
only  calling.  There  are  other  callings  as  noble,  and 
there  are  callings  in  which  many  women  will  find  a 
much  wider  field  for  doing  good. 

II.  St.  Paul's  counsel  to  the  married.  Some  of  the 
Corinthians  seem  to  have  thought  that,  because  they 
were  new  creatures  in  Christ,  their  old  relations  should 
be  abandoned  ;  and  they  put  to  Paul  the  question 
whether  a  believing  man  who  had  an  unbelieving  wife 
ought  not  to  forsake  her.  Paul  had  shrewdness  enough 
to  see  that  if  a  Christian  might  separate  from  an  unbe- 
lieving wife  on  the  sole  ground  that  he  was  a  Christian, 
this  easy  mode  of  divorce  might  lead  to  a  large  and 
most  unwelcome  influx  of  pretended  Christians  into  the 
Church.     He   therefore  lays  down   the    law   that   the 


174     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

power  of  separation  is  to  rest  with  the  unbeHeving, 
and  not  with  the  believing,  partner.  ]f  the  unbeliev- 
ing wife  wishes  to  separate  from  her  Christian  husband, 
let  her  do  so;  but  the  change  from  heathenism  to 
Christianity  was  no  reason  for  sundering  the  marriage 
union.  It  frequently  happened  in  the  early  ages  of  the 
Church  that  when  a  man  was  converted  to  the  Christian 
faith  in  middle  life,  and  judged  he  could  serve  God 
better  without  the  encumbrance  of  a  family,  he  forsook 
his  wife  and  children  and  betook  himself  to  a  monastery. 
This  directly  contravened  the  law  here  laid  down  to 
abide  in  the  vocation  wherein  God's  call  had  found 
him. 

The  principle,  "  Let  every  man  abide  in  the  same 
calling  wherein  he  was  called,"  is  of  wide  application. 
The  slave  who  heard  God's  call  to  him  to  become  His 
child  was  not  to  think  he  must  resent  being  a  slave 
and  assert  his  Christian  liberty  by  requiring  emancipa- 
tion from  earthly  servitude.  On  the  contrary,  he  must 
he  content  with  the  inward  possession  of  the  freedom 
Christ  had  given  him,  and  must  show  his  liberty  by 
the  willingness  and  spontaneity  of  his  submission  to 
all  his  outward  conditions.  It  is  not  externals  that 
make  a  Christian  ;  and  if  God's  grace  has  found  a  man 
in  unlikely  circumstances,  that  is  the  best  evidence  he 
can  have  that  he  will  find  opportunity  of  serving  God 
in  those  circumstances,  if  there  be  no  sin  in  them.  It 
throws  great  light  on  the  relation  which  we  as  Christians 
hold  to  the  institutions  of  our  country,  and  generally  to 
outward  things,  when  w^e  understand  that  Christianity 
does  not  begin  by  making  external  changes,  but  begins 
within  and  gradually  finds  its  way  outwards,  modifying 
and  rectifying  all  it  meets. 

But   the   principle   to  which   Paul  chiefly  trusts,  he 


vii.  i-io.l  MARRIAGE.  S75 

enounces  in  the  twenty -ninth  verse:  *'This  I  say, 
brethren,  the  time  is  short  :  it  remaineth  that  both 
they  that  have  wives  be  as  though  they  had  none,  and 
they  that  weep  as  though  they  wept  not ;  ...  for  the 
fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away."  The  forms  in 
which  human  life  is  now  moulded,  the  kind  of  business 
w^e  are  now  engaged  in,  the  pleasures  we  enjoy,  even 
the  relationships  we  hold  to  one  another,  pass  away. 
There  are  no  doubt  relationships  which  time  cannot 
dissolve,  marriages  so  fit  and  uniting  spirits  so 
essentially  kindred  that  no  change  can  dissolve  them, 
affections  so  pure  and  clinging  that  if  the  future  does 
not  renew  them,  it  loses  a  large  part  of  its  charm  for 
us.  But  whatever  is  temporary  in  our  relation  to  the 
present  world  it  is  foolish  so  to  set  our  heart  on,  that 
death  may  seem  to  end  all  our  joy  and  all  our  useful- 
ness. We  may  resent  being  asked  to  be  moderate 
and  self-restrained  in  our  devotedness  to  this  or  that 
pursuit,  but  the  fact  is  that  the  time  is  short  and  that 
the  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away  ;  and  it  is  surely 
the  part  of  wisdom  to  accomn.odate  one's  self  to  fact. 
In  this  life  we  now  lead,  and  underneath  all  its  activities, 
and  forms,  and  relationships,  we  have  opportunity  of 
laying  hold  on  what  is  permanent ;  and  if,  instead  of 
penetrating  through  the  outward  things  to  the  eternal 
significance  and  relations  they  bear,  we  give  ourselves 
wholly  to  them,  we  abuse  the  world,  and  pervert  it  to 
an  end  for  which  it  was  not  intended.  The  man  who 
is  sent  abroad  for  five  years  would  consider  it  folly  to 
accumulate  a  large  collection  of  the  luxuries  of  life, 
furniture,  and  paintings,  and  encumbrances ;  how  many 
times  five  years  do  we  expect  to  live,  that  we  should 
be  much  concerned  to  amass  goods  which  we  cannot 
remove   to  another  world  ?     This  world  is  a  means, 


176     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

and  not  an  end  ;  and  those  use  it  best  who  use  it  in 
relation  to  what  is  to  be.  They  use  it  not  less  vigor- 
ously, but  more  wisely,  not  despising  the  mould  which 
fashions  them  to  their  eternal  form,  but  ever  bearing 
in  mind  that  the  mould  is  to  be  broken  and  that  what 
is  fashioned  by  it  alone  remains.  It  is  the  thought  of 
our  great  future  which  alone  gives  us  sufficient  courage 
and  wisdom  to  deal  with  present  things  intensely  and 
in  earnest.  For,  as  a  heathen  long  ago  saw  and  said, 
"  if  God  make  so  much  of  creatures  in  whom  there  is 
nothing  permanent.  He  is  like  women  who  sow  the 
seeds  of  plants  within  the  soil  enclosed  in  an  oyster- 
shell."  The  very  intensity  of  our  interests  and  affections 
reminds  us  that  we  cannot  root  ourselves  in  this  present 
life,  but  need  a  larger  room. 


LIBERTY  AND   LOVE. 


12 


"  Now  as  touching  things  offered  unto  idols,  we  know  that  we  all 
have  knowledge.  Knowledge  puffeth  up,  but  charity  edifieth.  And 
if  any  man  think  that  he  knoweth  anything,  he  knowcth  nothing  yet 
as  he  ought  to  know.  But  if  any  man  love  God,  the  same  is  known 
of  him.  As  concerning  therefore  the  eating  of  those  things  that  are 
offered  in  sacrifice  unto  idols,  we  know  that  an  idol  is  nothing  in 
the  world,  and  that  there  is  none  other  God  but  one.  For  though 
there  be  that  are  called  gods,  whether  in  heaven  or  in  earth,  (as 
there  be  gods  many,  and  lords  many,)  but  to  us  there  is  but  one  God, 
the  Father,  of  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  in  Him ;  and  one  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  by  Him.  Howbeit 
there  is  not  in  every  man  that  knowledge  :  for  some  with  conscience 
of  the  idol  unto  this  hour  eat  it  as  a  thing  offered  unto  an  idol ; 
and  their  conscience  being  weak  is  defiled.  But  meat  commendeth 
us  not  to  God  ;  for  neither,  if  we  eat,  are  we  the  better ;  neither,  if 
we  eat  not,  are  we  the  worse.  But  take  heed  lest  by  any  means 
this  liberty  of  yours  become  a  stumbling-block  to  them  that  are 
weak.  For  if  any  man  see  thee  which  hast  knowledge  sit  at  meat 
in  the  idol's  temple,  shall  not  the  conscience  of  him  which  is  weak 
be  emboldened  to  eat  those  things  which  are  offered  to  idols;  and 
through  thy  knowledge  shall  the  weak  brother  perish,  for  whom 
Christ  died  ?  But  when  ye  sin  so  against  the  brethren,  and  wound 
their  weak  conscience,  ye  sin  against  Christ.  Wherefore,  if  me^t 
make  my  brother  to  offend,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the  world 
standeth,  lest  I  make  my  brother  to  offend." — I  Cor.  viii.  I — 13. 

"All  things  are  lawful  forme,  but  all  things  are  not  expedient:  all 
things  are  lawful  for  me,  but  all  things  edify  not.  Let  no  man  seek 
his  own,  but  every  man  another's  wealth.  Whatsoever  is  sold  in 
the  shambles,  that  eat,  asking  no  question  for  conscience'  sake  :  for 
the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness  thereof.  If  any  of  them  that 
believe  not  bid  you  to  a  feast,  and  ye  be  disposed  to  go  ;  whatsoever 
is  set  before  you,  eat,  asking  no  question  for  conscience'  sake.  But  if 
any  man  say  unto  you,  This  is  offered  in  sacrifice  unto  idols,  eat 
not  for  his  sake  that  showed  it,  and  for  conscience'  sake  :  for  the 
earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness  thereof:  conscience,  I  saj",  not 
thine  own,  but  of  the  other  :  for  why  is  my  liberty  judged  of  another 
man's  conscience  ?  For  if  I  by  grace  be  a  partaker,  why  am  I  evil 
spoken  of  for  that  for  which  I  give  thanks  ?  Wliether  therefore  ye 
eat,  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God.  Give 
none  offence,  neither  to  the  Jews,  nor  to  the  Gentiles,  nor  to  the 
Church  of  God  :  even  as  I  please  all  men  in  all  things,  not  seeking 
mine  own  profit,  but  the  profit  of  man}-,  that  they  may  be  saved.  Be 
ye  followers  of  me,  even  as  I  also  am  of  Chiist." — i  Cor.  x.  23-xi.  i. 


XII. 

LIBERTY  AND  LOVE, 

THE  next  question  which  had  been  put  to  Paul 
by  the  Corinthian  Church,  and  to  which  he  now 
rephes,  is  "  touching  things  offered  unto  idols,"  whether 
a  Christian  had  hberty  to  eat  such  things  or  not.  This 
question  necessarily  arose  in  a  society  partly  heathen 
and  partly  Christian.  Every  meal  was  in  a  manner 
dedicated  to  the  household  gods  by  laying  some 
portion  of  it  on  the  family  altar.  Where  one  member  of 
a  heathen  family  had  become  a  Christian,  he  would  at 
once  be  confronted  with  the  question,  rising  in  his  own 
conscience,  whether  by  partaking  of  such  food  he  might 
not  be  countenancing  idolatry.  On  the  occasion  of 
a  birthday,  or  a  marriage,  or  a  safe  return  from  sea, 
or  any  circumstance  that  seemed  to  call  for  celebration, 
it  was  customary  to  sacrifice  in  some  public  temple. 
And  after  the  legs  of  the  victim,  enclosed  in  fat,  and  the 
entrails  had  been  burnt  on  the  altar,  the  worshipper 
received  the  remainder,  and  invited  his  friends  and 
guests  to  partake  of  it  either  in  the  temple  itself,  or  in 
the  surrounding  grove,  or  at  his  own  home.  Here 
again  a  young  convert  might  very  naturally  ask  himself 
whether  he  was  justified  in  attending  such  a  feast  and 
actually  sitting  down  to  meat  in  the  idol's  presence. 
Nor  was  it  only  personal  friendships  and  the  harmony 
of  family    life    that    were    threatened ;    but    on  public 


i8o     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

occasions  and  national  celebrations  the  Christian  was 
in  a  strait  betwixt  two;  fearful,  on  the  one  hand,  of 
branding  himself  as  no  good  citizen  by  abstaining  from 
participation  in  the  feast,  fearful,  on  the  other  hand,  lest 
by  compliance  he  should  be  found  unfaithful  to  his  new 
religion.  And  even  though  his  own  family  was  entirely 
Christian,  the  difficulty  was  not  removed,  for  much 
of  the  meat  offered  in  worship  found  its  way  into  the 
common  market,  so  that  at  every  meal  the  Christian 
ran  the  risk  of  eating  things  sacrificed  to  idols. 

Among  the  Jews  it  had  always  been  considered 
pollution  to  eat  such  food.  Instances  are  on  record 
of  men  dying  cheerfully  rather  than  suffer  such  con- 
tamination. Few  Jewish  Christians  could  rise  to  the 
height  of  our  Lord's  maxim,  "Not  that  which  goeth  into 
a  man  defileth  him."  The  Gentile  converts  also  felt 
the  difficulty  of  at  once  throwing  off  all  the  old 
associations.  When  they  entered  the  temple  where 
but  a  few  months  ago  they  had  worshipped,  the 
atmosphere  of  the  place  intoxicated  them  ;  and  the  long- 
accustomed  sights  quickened  their  pulse  and  exposed 
them  to  serious  temptation.  Others,  less  sensitive,  could 
use  the  temple  as  they  would  an  ordinary  eating-house, 
without  the  slightest  stirring  of  idolatrous  feeling. 
Some  went  to  the  houses  of  heathen  friends  as  often 
as  they  wL-re  invited,  and  partook  of  what  was  set 
before  them,  making  no  minute  inquiries  as  to  how  the 
meat  had  been  provided,  asking  no  questions  for  con- 
science' sake,  but  believing  that  the  earth  and  its  fulness 
were  the  Lord's,  and  that  what  they  ate  they  received 
from  God,  and  not  from  an  idol.  Others,  again,  could 
not  shake  off  the  feeling  that  they  were  countenancing 
idolatry  when  they  partook  of  such  feasts.  Thus  there 
r.rose  a  diversity  of  judgment  and  a  variance  in  practice 


v;ii.  i-i3;x.23-xi.  I.]    LIBERTY  AND  LOVE.  i8i 

which  must  have  given  rise  to  much  annoyance,  and 
Virhich  did  not  appear  to  be  approaching  any  nearer  to 
a  final  and  satisfactory  settlement. 

In  answer  to  the  appeal  made  to  him  on  this  subject, 
it  might  seem  that  Paul  had  nothing  to  do  but  quote 
the  deliverance  of  the  Council  of  Jerusalem,  which 
determined  that  Gentile  converts  should  be  command-  d 
to  abstain  from  meats  offered  to  idols.  Paul  himself 
had  obtanied  that  deliverance,  and  was  satisfied  with 
it;  but  now  he  makes  no  reference  to  it,  and  treats 
the  question  afresh.  In  the  epistles  of  the  Lord 
to  the  Churches,  embodied  in  the  Book  of  Revelation, 
the  eating  of  things  sacrificed  to  idols  is  spoken  of  in 
strongly  condemnatory  language;  and  in  one  of  the 
very  earliest  non-canonical  documents  of  the  primitive 
Church  we  find  the  precept,  "Abstain  carefully  from 
things  offered  to  idols,  for  that  is  worship  of  dead 
gods."  Paul's  disregard  of  the  decision  of  the  Council 
is  probably  due  to  his  belief  that  that  decision  was 
merely  provisional  and  temporary.  He  had  founded 
Churches  which  could  scarcely  be  expected  to  go  past 
hmiself  for  guidance ;  and  as  the  situation  in  the 
Corinthian  Church  was  different  from  what  it  had  been 
in  Antioch,  he  felt  justified  in  treating  the  matter  afresh. 
And  while  in  the  early  Church  the  partaking  of 
sacrificial  food  which  Paul  allowed  was  sometimes 
vehemently  condemned,  this  was  due  to  the  circumstance 
that  it  was  sometimes  used  as  a  test  of  a  man's 
abandonment  of  idolatry.  Of  course  where  this  was 
the  case  no  Christian  could  possibly  be  in  doubt 
regarding  the  proper  course  to  follow.  What  a  man 
may  freel}^  do  in  ordinary  circumstances,  he  may  not 
do  if  he  is  warned  that  certain  inferences  will  be  drawn 
from  his  action.  ^,  ^ 


f'tr?. 

\' 

'<^..r:-- 

..V 

1 82     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

The  case  laid  before  Paul  then  belongs  to  the  class 
known  as  matters  morally  indifferent.  These  are 
matters  upon  which  conscience  does  not  uniformly  give 
the  same  verdict  even  among  persons  brought  up  under 
the  same  moral  law.  On  mingling  with  society,  every 
one  finds  that  there  are  many  points  of  conduct 
regarding  which  there  is  not  an  unanimous  consent  of 
judgment  among  the  most  delicately  conscientious 
people,  and  upon  which  it  is  difficult  to  decide  even 
when  we  are  anxious  to  do  right.  Such  points  are  the 
lawfulness  of  attending  certain  places  of  public  amuse- 
ment, the  propriety  of  allowing  one's  self  to  be  implicated 
in  certain  kinds  of  private  amusements  or  entertain- 
ments, the  way  of  spending  Sunday,  and  the  amount 
of  pleasure,  refinement,  and  luxury  one  may  admit  into 
his  life. 

The  state  of  feeling  produced  in  Corinth  by  the  dis- 
cussion of  such  topics  is  apparent  from  Paul's  mode  of 
treating  the  question  put  to  him.  His  answer  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  party  who  claimed  superior  knowledge, 
who  wished  to  be  known  as  the  party  which  stood  for 
liberty  of  conscience,  and  probably  for  the  Pauline 
axiom,  "  All  things  are  lawful  for  me."  Paul  does  not 
directly  address  those  who  had  scruples  about  eating, 
but  those  who  had  none.  He  does  not  speak  to,  but 
only  of,  the  *'  weak  "  brethren  who  bad  still  conscience 
of  the  idol.  And  apparently  a  good  deal  of  ill-feeling 
had  been  engendered  in  the  Corinthian  Church  by  the 
different  views  taken.  This  is  always  the  trouble  in 
connection  with  morally  indifferent  matters.  They  do 
little  harm  if  each  holds  his  own  opinion  genially  and 
endeavours  to  influence  others  by  a  friendly  statement 
of  his  own  practice  and  the  grounds  of  it.  But  in 
most  instances  it  happens  as    in  Corinth  :  those  who 


viii.  i-i3;x.23-xi.  i]    LIBERTY  AND  LOVE.  183 

saw  that  they  could  eat  without  contamination  scorned 
those  who  had  scruples ;  while,  on  their  side,  the 
scrupulous  judged  the  eaters  to  be  worldly  time-servers, 
in  a  perilous  state,  less  godly  and  consistent  than 
themselves. 

As  a  first  step  towards  the  settlement  of  this  matter, 
Paul  makes  the  largest  concession  to  the  party  of 
liberty.  Their  clear  perception  that  an  idol  was  nothing 
in  the  world,  a  mere  bit  of  timber,  and  of  no  more 
significance  to  a  Christian  than  a  pillar  or  a  doorpost 
— this  knowledge  is  sound  and  commendable.  At  the 
same  time,  the}^  need  not  make  quite  so  much  of  it  as 
they  were  doing.  In  their  letter  of  inquiry  they  must 
have  emphasized  the  fact  that  they  were  the  party  of 
enlightenment,  who  saw  things  as  they  really  were,  and 
had  freed  themselves  from  fantastic  superstitions  and 
antiquated  ideas.  Quite  true,  says  Paul,  "  we  all  have 
knovv^ledge;"  but  you  need  not  remind  me  at  every  turn  of 
your  superior  discernment  of  the  Christian's  true  position 
nor  of  your  wonderfully  sagacious  discovery  that  an 
idol  is  nothing  in  the  world.  Any  Jewish  schoolboy 
could  have  told  you  this.  I  know  that  you  understand 
the  principles  which  should  regulate  your  intercourse 
with  the  heathen  much  better  than  the  scrupulous  do, 
and  that  your  views  of  liberty  are  my  own.  Let  us 
then  hear  no  more  of  this.  Do  not  always  be  returning 
upon  this,  as  if  this  settled  the  whole  matter.  You 
are  in  the  right  so  far  as  regards  knowledge,  and 
your  brethren  are  weak ;  let  that  be  conceded :  but 
do  not  suppose  you  settle  the  question  or  impress  me 
more  strongly  with  the  righteousness  of  your  conduct 
by  reiterating  that  you,  whom  your  brethren  call  lax 
and  misguided,  are  better  instructed  in  the  principle  of 
Christian  conduct  than  they.    Once  for  all,  I  know  this. 


i84     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 


Does  this  then  not  settle  the  question  ?  If — the  party 
of  hberty  might  say — if  we  are  right,  if  the  idol  is 
nothing,  and  an  idol's  temple  no  more  than  an  ordinary 
dining-room,  does  this  not  settle  the  whole  matter  ? 
By  no  means,  says  Paul.  "  Knowledge  puffeth  up, 
but  charity  edifieth."  You  have  as  yet  grasped  only 
one  end,  and  that  the  weaker  end,  of  the  Christian  rule. 
You  must  add  love,  consideration  of  your  neighbour, 
to  your  knowledge.  Without  this,  knowledge  is  un- 
wholesome and  as  likely  to  do  harm  as  to  do  good. 
In  very  similar  terms  the  founder  of  the  Positive  philo- 
sophy speaks  of  the  evil  results  of  loveless  knowledge. 
'^  I  am  free  to  confess,"  he  says,  "  that  hitherto  the 
Positive  spirit  has  been  tainted  with  the  two  moral 
evils  which  peculiarly  wait  on  knowledge.  It  puffs  up, 
and  it  dries  the  heart,  by  giving  free  scope  to  pride 
and  by  turning  it  from  love."  It  is  indeed  matter  of 
everyday  observation  that  men  of  ready  insight  into 
moral  and  spiritual  truth  are  prone  to  despise  the  less 
enlightened  spirits  that  stumble  among  the  scruples 
which,  like  the  bats  of  the  moral  twilight,  fly  in  their 
faces.  The  knowledge  which  is  not  tempered  by 
humility  and  love  does  harm  both  to  its  possessor  and 
to  other  Christians  ;  it  puffs  up  its  possessor  with  scorn, 
and  it  alienates  and  embitters  the  less  enlightened. 
Knowledge  without  love,  knowledge  which  does  not 
take  into  consideration  the  difficulties  and  scruples  of 
brethren,  cannot  be  admired  or  commended,  for  though 
in  itself  a  good  thing  and  capable  of  being  used  for 
the  advancement  of  the  Church,  knowledge  dissociated 
from  charity  can  do  good  neither  to  him  who  possesses 
it  nor  to  the  Christian  community.  However  the 
possessors  of  such  knowledge  vaunt  themselves  as  the 
men  of  progress  and  the  hope  of  the  Church,  it  is  not 


viii.  i-i3;x.  23-xi.  I.]    LIBERTY  AND  LOVE.  185 

by  knowledge  alone  the  Church  can  ever  solidly  grow. 
Knowledge  does  produce  an  appearance  of  growth,  a 
puffing  up,  an  unhealthy,  morbid  growth,  a  mushroom, 
fungous  growth  ;  but  that  which  builds  up  the  Church 
stone  by  stone,  a  strong,  enduring  edifice,  is  love.  It  is 
a  good  thing  to  have  clear  views  of  Christian  liberty, 
to  have  definite,  firmly  held  ideas  of  Christian  conduct, 
to  discard  fretting  scruples  and  idle  superstitions  ;  add 
love  to  this  knowledge,  exercise  it  in  a  tender,  patient, 
self-denying,  considerate,  loving  way,  and  you  edify 
both  yourself  and  the  Church  :  but  exercise  it  without 
love,  and  you  become  a  poor  inflated  creature,  puffed 
up  with  a  noxious  gas  destructive  of  all  higher  life  in 
yourself  and  in  others. 

Paul's  law  then  is  that  Hberty  must  be  tempered 
by  love ;  that  the  individual  must  consider  the  society 
of  which  he  forms  a  part;  and  that,  after  his  own 
conscience  is  satisfied  regarding  the  legitimacy  of 
certain  actions,  he  must  further  consider  how  the 
conscience  of  his  neighbour  will  be  affected  if  he  uses 
his  liberty  and  does  these  actions.  He  must  en- 
deavour to  keep  step  with  the  Christian  community 
of  which  he  forms  a  part,  and  must  beware  of  giving 
offence  to  less  enlightened  persons  by  his  freer  con- 
duct. He  must  consider  not  only  whether  he  himself 
can  do  this  or  that  v^ith  a  good  conscience,  but  also 
how  the  conscience  of  those  who  know  what  he  does 
will  be  affected  by  it. 

Applying  this  law  to  the  matter  in  hand;  Paul 
declares  that,  for  his  own  part,  he  has  no  scruples 
at  all  about  meat.  ''  Meat  commendeth  us  not  to 
God  :  for  neither,  if  we  eat,  are  we  the  better ;  neither, 
if  we  eat  not,  are  we  the  worse."  If  therefore  I  had 
to  consult  only  my  own  conscience,  the  matter  would 


i86     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

admit  of  prompt  and  easy  solution.  I  would  as  soon 
eat  in  an  idol's  temple  as  anywhere  else.  But  all 
have  not  the  conviction  we  have  that  an  idol  is 
nothing  in  the  world.  Some  are  unable  to  rid  them- 
selves of  the  feeling  that  in  eating  sacrificial  meat 
they  are  paying  an  act  of  homage  to  the  idol.  **  Some 
with  conscience  of  the  idol,"  with  the  feeling  that  the 
idol  is  present  and  accepting  the  worship,  "  eat  the 
sacrificial  meat  as  a  thing  offered  unto  an  idol,  and 
their  conscience  being  weak  is  defiled."  Their  con- 
science is  weak,  not  fully  enlightened,  not  purged  of  old 
superstition ;  but  their  conscience  is  their  conscience  : 
and  if  they  feel  they  are  doing  a  wrong  thing  and 
yet  do  it,  they  do  a  wrong  thing,  and  defile  their 
conscience.  Therefore  we  must  consider  them  as 
well  as  ourselves,  for  as  often  as  we  use  our  liberty 
and  eat  sacrificial  meat  we  tempt  them  to  do  the 
same,  and  so  to  defile  their  conscience.  They  know 
that  you  are  men  of  sound  and  clear  spiritual  discern- 
ment ;  they  look  up  to  you  as  guides  :  and  if  they  see 
you  who  have  knowledge  sitting  at  meat  in  the 
idol's  temple,  must  not  they  be  emboldened  to  do 
the  same,  and  so  to  stain  and  harden  their  own  con- 
science ? 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  how  this  would  be  exempli- 
fied at  a  Corinthian  table.  Three  Christians  are 
invited,  with  other  guests,  to  a  party  in  the  house 
of  a  heathen  friend.  One  of  these  invited  Christians 
is  weakly  scrupulous,  unable  to  disentangle  himself 
from  the  old  idolatrous  associations  connected  with 
sacrificial  meat.  The  other  two  Christians  are  men 
of  ampler  view  and  more  enlightened  conscience,  and 
have  the  deepest  conviction  that  scruples  about  eating 
at  a  heathen  table  are  baseless.     All  three  recline  at 


viii.  I-I3;x.  23-xi.  I.]    LIBERTY  AND  LOVE.  187 

the  table  ;  but,  as  the  meal  goes  on,  the  anxious,  scruti- 
nizing eye  of  the  weak  brother  discerns  some  mark 
which  identifies  the  meat  as  sacrificial,  or,  fearing 
it  may  be  so,  he  inquires  of  the  servant,  and  finds  it 
has  been  offered  in  the  temple  :  and  at  once  he  draws 
the  attention  of  his  Christian  friends  to  this,  saying, 
''  This  has  been  offered  in  sacrifice  to  idols."  One 
of  his  friends,  knowing  that  heathen  eyes  are  watching, 
and  wishing  to  show  how  superior  to  all  such  scruples 
the  enlightened  Christian  is  and  how  genial  and  free 
a  religion  is  the  religion  of  Christ,  smiles  at  his 
friend's  scruples,  and  accepts  the  meat.  The  other, 
quite  as  clear-sighted  and  free  from  superstition,  but 
more  generous  and  more  truly  courageous,  accom- 
modates himself  to  the  scruple  of  the  weak  brother, 
and  declines  the  dish,  lest  by  eating  and  leaving  the 
scrupulous  man  without  support  he  should  tempt  him 
to  follow  their  example,  contrary  to  his  own  conviction, 
and  so  lead  him  into  sin.  It  need  not  be  said  which 
of  these  men  acts  the  friendly  part  and  comes  nearest 
to  the  Christian  principle  of  Paul. 

In  our  own  society  similar  cases  necessarily  arise. 
I,  as  a  Christian  man,  and  knowing  that  the  earth  and 
its  fulness  are  the  Lord's,  may  feel  at  perfect  liberty  to 
drink  wine.  Had  I  only  myself  to  consider,  and  know- 
ing that  my  temptation  does  not  lie  that  way,  I  might 
use  wine  regularly  or  as  often  as  I  felt  disposed  to 
enjoy  a  needed  stimulant.  I  may  feel  quite  convinced 
in  my  own  mind  that  morally  I  am  not  one  whit  the 
worse  of  doing  so.  But  I  cannot  determine  whether 
I  am  to  indulge  myself  or  not  without  considering  the 
effect  my  conduct  will  have  on  others.  There  may  be 
among  my  friends  some  who  know  that  their  temptation 
does   lie    that  way,  and  whose  conscience  bids   them 


i8S     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

altogether  refrain.  If  by  my  example  such  persons  are 
encouraged  to  silence  the  voice  of  their  own  conscience, 
then  I  incur  the  incalculable  guilt  of  helping  to  destroy 
a  brother  for  whom  Christ  died. 

Or  again,  a  lad  has  had  the  great  good  fortune  to  be 
brought  up  in  a  Puritanic  household,  and  has  imbibed 
stringent  moral  principles,  with  perhaps  somewhat 
narrow  ideas.  He  has  been  taught,  together  wdth  much 
else  of  the  same  character,  that  the  influence  of  the 
theatre  is  in  our  country  demoralizing,  that  one  day  in 
the  week  is  little  enough  to  give  to  the  claims  of 
spiritual  education,  and  so  forth.  But  on  entering  the 
life  of  a  great  city  he  is  soon  brought  in  contact  with 
men  whose  uprightness,  and  sagacity,  and  Christian 
spirit  he  cannot  but  respect,  but  who  yet  read  their 
weekly  paper,  or  any  book  they  are  interested  in,  as 
freely  on  Sunday  as  on  Saturday,  and  who  visit  the 
theatre  without  the  slightest  twinge  of  conscience.  Now 
either  of  two  things  will  probably  happen  in  such  a 
case.  The  young  man's  ideas  of  Christian  liberty  may 
become  clearer,  He  may  attain  the  standpoint  of 
Paul,  and  may  see  that  fellowship  with  Christ  can  be 
maintained  in  conditions  of  life  he  once  absolutely  con- 
demned. Or  the  young  man  may  not  grow  in  Christian 
perception,  but  being  daunted  by  overpowering  example, 
and  chafing  under  the  raillery  of  his  companions,  may 
do  as  others  do,  though  still  uneasy  in  his  own 
conscience. 

What  is  to  be  observed  about  this  process,  which  is 
ceaselessly  going  on  in  society,  is  that  the  emboldening 
of  conscience  is  one  thing,  its  enlightenment  quite 
another.  And  were  it  possible  to  get  statistics  of  the 
proportion  of  cases  in  which  the  one  process  goes  on 
without  the  other,   these  statistics  might  be  salutary. 


viii.  i-i3;x.23-xi.  I.]    LIBERTY  AND  LOVE.  189 

But  we  need  no  statistics  to  assure  us  that  Christian 
people  by  selfishly  using  their  own  hberty  do  continually 
lead  less  enhghtened  persons  to  trample  on  their  scruples 
and  disregard  their  own  conscience.  Constantly  it 
happens  in  every  department  of  human  life  that  men 
who  once  shrank  from  certain  practices  as  wrong  now 
freely  engage  in  them,  although  they  are  not  in  their 
own  mind  any  more  clearly  convinced  of  their  legitimacy 
than  they  were  before,  but  are  merely  emboldened  by 
the  example  of  others.  Such  persons,  if  possessed 
of  any  self-observation  and  candour,  will  tell  you  that 
at  first  they  felt  as  if  they  were  stealing  the  indulgence 
or  the  gain  the  practice  brings,  and  that  they  had 
to  drown  the  voice  of  conscience  by  the  louder  voice  of 
example. 

The  results  of  this  are  disastrous.  Conscience  is 
dethroned.  The  ship  no  longer  obeys  her  helm,  and 
lies  in  the  trough  of  the  sea  swept  by  every  wave  and 
driven  by  every  wind.  It  may  indeed  be  said.  What 
harm  can  come  of  persons  less  enlightened  being 
emboldened  to  do  as  we  do  if  what  we  do  is  right  ? 
Is  not  that,  most  strictly  speaking,  edification  ?  It  is 
not  as  if  we  emboldened  any  one  to  transgress  the 
moral  law  ;  we  are  merely  bringing  our  weak  brother's 
conduct  up  to  the  level  of  our  own.  Do  we  not  act 
wisely  and  well  in  so  doing?  Again  it  must  be 
answered.  No,  because,  while  yielding  themselves  to 
the  influence  of  your  example,  these  persons  abandon 
the  guidance  of  their  own  conscience,  which  may  be  a 
less  enlightened,  but  is  certainly  a  more  authoritative, 
guide  than  you.  If  the  weak  brother  does  a  right 
thing  while  his  conscience  tells  him  it  is  a  wrong  thing, 
to  him  it  is  a  wrong  thing.  "  Whatsoever  is  not  of 
faith  is  sin ; "  that  is  to  say,  whatsoever  is  not  dictated 


I90     THE   FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 

by  a  thorough  conviction  that  it  is  right  is  sin.  It  is 
sin  which  in  some  respects  is  more  dangerous  than 
a  sin  of  passion  or  impulse.  By  a  sin  of  passion  the 
conscience  is  not  directly  injured,  and  may  remain 
comparatively  tender  and  healthy  ;  but  when  you  refuse 
to  acknowledge  conscience  as  your  guide  and  accept 
some  other  person's  conduct  as  that  which  may  dictate 
to  you  what  you  may  or  may  not  do,  you  dethrone 
conscience,  and  sap  your  moral  nature.  You  shut  your 
own  eyes,  and  prefer  to  be  led  by  the  hand  of  another 
person,  which  may  indeed  serve  you  on  this  occasion ; 
but  the  end  will  be  a  dog  and  a  string. 

Two  permanent  lessons  are  preserved  in  this 
exposition  which  Paul  gives  of  the  matter  laid  before 
him.  The  first  is  the  sacredness  or  supremacy  of 
conscience.  *'  Let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his 
own  mind;"  that  is  the  one  legitimate  source  of  conduct. 
A  man  may  possibly  do  a  wrong  thing  when  he  obeys 
conscience;  he  is  certainly  wrong  when  he  acts  contrary 
to  conscience.  He  may  be  helped  to  a  decision  by  the 
advice  of  others,  but  it  is  his  own  decision  by  which 
he  must  abide.  He  must  act,  not  on  the  conviction  of 
others,  but  on  his  own.  It  is  what  he  himself  sees  that 
must  guide  him.  He  is  bound  to  use  every  means  to 
enlighten  his  conscience  and  to  learn  with  accuracy 
what  is  right  and  allowable,  but  he  is  also  bound 
always  to  act  upon  lis  own  present  perception  of  what 
is  right.  His  conscience  may  not  be  as  enlightened 
as  it  ought  to  be.  Still  his  duty  is  to  enlighten,  not  to 
violate,  it.  It  is  the  guide  God  has  given  us,  and  we 
must  not  choose  another. 

The  second  lesson  is  that  we  must  ever  use  our 
Christian  liberty  with  Christian  consideration  of  others. 
Love  must  mingle  with  all  we  do.     There  are  many 


viii.  i-i3;x.  23-xi.  I.]    LIBERTY  AND  LOVE.  191 

things  which  are  lawful  for  a  Christian,  but  which  are 
not  compulsory  or  obligatory,  and  which  he  may  refrain 
from  doing  on  cause  shown.  Duties  he  must  of  course 
discharge,  regardless  of  the  effect  his  conduct  may  have 
on  others.  He  may  be  quite  sure  he  will  be  misunder- 
stood ;  he  may  be  sure  evil  motives  will  be  imputed 
to  him  ;  he  may  be  sure  disastrous  consequences  will 
be  the  first  result  of  his  action ;  but  if  conscience 
says  this  or  that  must  be  done,  then  all  thought  of 
consequences  must  be  thrown  to  the  winds.  But  where 
conscience  says,  not  "  You  must,"  but  only  ''  You  may," 
then  we  must  consider  the  effect  our  using  our  liberty 
will  have  on  others.  We  lie  as  Christians  under  an 
obligation  to  consider  others,  to  lay  aside  all  pride  of 
advanced  ideas,  and  this  not  merely  that  we  may 
submit  ourselves  to  those  vi^ho  know  better  than  we, 
but  that  we  may  not  offend  those  who  are  bound  by 
prejudices  of  which  we  are  rid.  We  must  limit  our 
liberty  by  the  scrupulosity  of  prejudiced,  narrow-minded, 
weak  people.  We  must  forego  our  liberty  to  do  this 
or  that  if  by  doing  it  we  should  shock  or  disturb  a 
weak  brother  or  encourage  him  to  overstep  his  con- 
science. As  the  Arctic  voyager  who  has  been  frozen  up 
all  winter  does  not  seize  the  first  opportunity  to  escape, 
but  waits  till  his  weaker  companions  gain  strength 
enough  to  accompany  him,  so  must  the  Christian 
accommodate  himself  to  the  weaknesses  of  others,  lest 
by  using  his  liberty  he  should  injure  him  for  whom 
Christ  died.  Never  was  there  a  man  who  more  fully 
understood  the  freedom  of  the  Christian  position  than 
Paul;  no  man  was  ever  more  entirely  lifted  out  of  the 
mist  of  superstition  and  formalism  into  the  clear  light 
of  free,  eternal  life  :  but  with  this  freedom  he  carried 
a  sympathy  with  weak  and  entangled  beginners  w^hich 


192     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

prompted  him  to  exclaim,  *'  If  meat  make  my  brother 
to  oflfend,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the  world  standeth, 
lest  1  make  my  brother  to  offend." 

Our  conduct  must  be  limited  and  to  a  certain  extent 
regulated  by  the  narrow-mindedness,  the  scruples,  the 
prejudices,  the  weakness  in  short,  of  others.  We 
cannot  say,  I  see  my  way  to  do  so-and-so,  let  my 
friend  think  what  he  pleases;  I  am  not  to  be  trammelled 
by  his  superstition  or  ignorance  ;  let  my  conduct  have 
what  effect  it  will  on  him  ;  I  am  not  responsible  for 
that ;  if  he  does  not  see  it  to  be  right,  I  do,  and  I  will 
act  accordingly.  We  cannot  speak  thus  if  the  matter 
be  indifferent ;  if  it  be  a  matter  we  can  lawfully  abstain 
from,  then  abstain  we  must  if  we  would  follow  the 
Apostle  who  followed  Christ.  This  is  the  practical 
law  which  stands  in  the  forefront  of  Christ's  teaching 
and  was  sealed  by  every  day  of  His  life.  It  is  enounced 
not  only  by  St.  Paul :  '*  Destroy  not  him  with  thy 
meat  for  whom  Christ  died;"  "Through  thy  knowledge 
shall  the  weak  brother  perish,  for  whom  Christ  died,'* 
but  also  in  our  Lord's  still  more  emphatic  words, 
"  Whoso  shall  offend  one  of  these  little  ones  which 
believe  in  Me,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone 
were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  drowned 
in  the  depth  of  the  sea."  Paul  could  not  look  on  his 
weak  brethren  as  narrow-minded  bigots,  could  not  call 
them  hard  names  and  ride  rough-shod  over  their 
scruples ;  and  to  this  delicate  consideration  he  was 
aided  by  the  remembrance  that  these  were  the  persons 
for  whom  Christ  died.  For  them  Christ  sacrificed,  not 
merely  a  little  feeling  or  a  little  of  His  own  way,  but 
His  own  will  and  self  entirely.  And  the  spirit  of  Christ 
is  still  manifested  in  all  in  whom  He  dwells,  specially 
in  a  humility  and  yieldingness  ot  disposition  which  is 


viii.  I-I3;  x.23-xi.  I.]    LIBERTY  AND  LOVE.  193 

not  led  by  self-interest  or  self-complacency,  but  seeks 
the  weal  of  other  men.  Nothing  shows  us  more 
distinctly  the  thorough  manner  in  which  St.  Paul 
partook  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  than  his  abiHty  to  say, 
"  I  please  all  men  in  all  things,  not  seeking  mine  own 
profit,  but  the  profit  of  many,  that  they  may  be  saved. 
Be  ye  followers  of  me,  even  as  I  also  am  of  Christ." 


»3 


MAINTENANCE    OF    THE    MINISTRY. 


"  Am  I  not  an  apostle  ?  am  I  not  free  ?  have  I  not  seen  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord  ?  are  not  ye  my  work  in  the  Lord  ?  If  I  be  not  an 
apostle  unto  others,  yet  doubtless  I  am  to  you  :  for  the  seal  of  mine 
apostleship  are  ye  in  the  Lord.  Mine  answer  to  them  that  do 
examine  me  is  this,  Have  we  not  power  to  eat  and  to  drink?  Have 
we  not  power  to  lead  about  a  sister,  a  wife,  as  well  as  oth::r  Apostles, 
and  as  the  brethren  of  the  Lord,  and  Cephas?  Or  I  only  and 
Barnabas,  have  not  we  power  to  forbear  working?  Who  goeth  a 
warfare  any  time  at  his  own  charges  ?  who  plantcth  a  vine3'ard,  and 
eateth  not  of  the  fruit  thereof?  or  who  feedeth  a  flock,  and  eateth 
not  of  the  milk  of  the  flock  ?  Say  I  these  things  as  a  man  ?  or  saith 
not  the  Law  the  same  also  ?  For  it  is  written  in  the  law  of  Moses, 
Thou  shalt  not  muzzle"the  mouth  of  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn. 
Doth  God  take  care  for  oxen  ?  Or  saith  He  it  altogether  for  our 
sakes  ?  For  our  sakes,  no  doubt,  this  is  written  :  that  he  that 
ploweth  should  plow  in  hope ;  and  that  he  that  thresheth  in  hope 
should  be  partaker  of  his  hope.  If  we  have  sown  unto  you  spiritual 
things,  is  it  a  great  thing  if  we  shall  reap  your  carnal  things?  If 
others  be  partakers  of  this  power  over  you,  are  not  we  rather? 
Nevertheless  we  have  not  used  this  power ;  but  suffer  all  things,  lest 
we  should  hinder  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Do  ye  not  know  that  they 
which  minister  about  holy  things  live  of  the  things  of  the  temple  ? 
and  they  which  wait  at  the  altar  are  partakers  with  the  altar  ?  Even 
so  hath  the  Lord  ordained  that  they  which  preach  the  Gospel  should 
live  of  the  Gospel.  But  I  have  used  none  of  these  things  :  neither 
have  I  written  these  things,  that  it  should  be  so  done  unto  me  :  for 
it  were  better  for  me  to  die,  than  that  any  man  should  make  my 
glorying  void.  For  though  I  preach  the  Gospel,  I  have  nothing  to 
glory  of:  for  necessity  is  laid  upon  me;  yea,  woe  is  unto  me,  if  I 
preach  not  the  Gospel !  For  if  I  do  this  thing  willingly,  I  have  a 
reward:  but  if  against  my  will,  a  dispensation  of  the  Gospel  is 
committed  unto  me.  What  is  my  reward  then  ?  Verily  that,  when 
I  preach  the  Gospel,  I  may  make  the  Gospel  of  Christ  without  charge, 
that  I  abuse  not  my  power  in  the  Gospel.  For  though  I  be  free  from 
all  men,  yet  have  I  made  myself  servant  unto  all,  that  I  might  gain 
the  more.  And  unto  the  Jews  I  became  as  a  Jew,  that  I  might  gain 
the  Jews;  to  them  that  are  under  the  Law,  as  under  the  Law,  that  I 
might  gain  them  that  are  under  the  Law ;  to  them  that  are  without  law, 
as  without  law,  (being  not  without  law  to  God,  but  under  the  Law 
to  Christ,)  that  I  might  gain  them  that  are  without  law.  To  the  weak 
became  I  as  weak,  that  I  might  gain  the  weak  :  I  am  made  all  things 
to  all  men,  that  I  might  by  all  means  save  some." — I  Cor.  ix.  1-22. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

MAINTENANCE   OF  THE  MINISTRY. 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  Paul  has  disposed  of  the 
question  put  to  him  regarding  meats  offered  in 
sacrifice  to  idols.  He  has  taken  occasion  to  point  out 
that  in  matters  morally  indifferent  Christian  men  will 
consider  the  scruples  of  weak,  and  prejudiced,  and 
superstitious  people.  He  has  inculcated  the  duty  of 
accommodating  ourselves  to  the  consciences  of  less 
enlightened  persons,  if  we  can  do  so  without  violating 
our  own.  For  his  own  part,  he  is  prepared,  while  the 
world  standeth,  to  abridge  his  Christian  liberty,  if  by 
his  using  that  liberty  he  may  imperil  the  conscience 
of  any  weak  brother.  But  keeping  pace,  as  Paul 
always  does,  with  the  thought  of  those  he  writes  to, 
he  no  sooner  makes  this  emphatic  statement  than  it 
occurs  to  him  that  those  in  Corinth  who  are  ill-affected 
towards  him  will  make  a  handle  even  of  his  self-denial, 
and  will  whisper  or  boldly  declare  that  it  is  all  very 
fine  for  Paul  to  use  this  language,  but  that,  in  point 
of  fact,  the  precarious  position  he  holds  in  the  Church 
makes  it  incumbent  on  him  to  deny  himself  and  become 
all  things  to  all  men.  His  apostleship  stands  on  so 
insecure  a  basis  that  he  has  no  option  in  the  matter, 
but  must  curry  favour  with  all  parties.  He  is  not  on 
the  same  platform  as  the  original  Apostles,  who  may 
reasonably   stand    upon    their   apostleship,  and    claim 


198     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

exemption  from  manual  labour,  and  demand  mainte- 
nance both  for  themselves  and  their  wives.  Paul 
remains  unmarried,  and  works  with  his  hands  to 
support  himself,  and  makes  himself  weak  among  the 
weak,  because  he  has  no  claim  to  maintenance  and  is 
aware  that  his  apostleship  is  doubtful.  He  proceeds 
therefore,  with  some  pardonable  warmth  and  righteous 
indignation,  to  assert  his  freedom  and  apostleship  (vers. 
I,  2),  and  to  prove  his  right  to  the  same  privileges 
and  maintenance  as  the  other  Apostles  (3 — 14);  and 
then  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  eighteenth  verse  he  gives 
the  true  reason  for  his  foregoing  his  rightful  claim  ;  and 
in  vers.  19 — 22  he  reaffirms  the  principle  on  which 
he  uniformly  acted,  becoming  "  all  things  to  all  men," 
suiting  himself  to  the  innocent  prejudices  and  weak- 
nesses of  all,  "  that  he  might  by  all  means  save  some." 

Paul  then  had  certain  rights  which  he  was  resolved 
should  be  acknowledged,  although  he  waived  them. 
He  maintains  that  if  he  saw  fit,  he  might  require  the 
Church  to  maintain  him,  and  to  maintain  him  not 
merely  in  the  bare  way  in  which  he  was  content  to 
live,  but  to  furnish  him  with  the  ordinary  comforts  of 
life.  He  might,  for  example,  he  says,  require  the 
Church  to  enable  him  to  keep  a  wife  and  to  pay 
not  only  his  own,  but  her,  travelling  expenses.  The 
other  Apostles  apparently  took  their  wives  with  them 
on  their  apostolic  journeys,  and  may  have  found  them 
useful  in  gaining  access  for  the  Gospel  to  the  secluded 
women  of  Eastern  and  Greek  cities.  He  might  also, 
he  says,  "  forbear  working  ;  "  might  cease,  that  is  to 
say,  from  his  tent-making  and  look  to  his  converts  for 
support.  He  is  indignant  at  the  sordid,  or  malicious, 
or  mistaken  spirit  which  could  deny  him  such  support. 

This  claim  to   support  and  privilege    Paul  rests  on 


ix.  1-22.]     MAINTENANCE   OF  THE  MINISTRY.  199 

several  grounds.  I.  He  is  an  apostle,  and  the  other 
Apostles  enjoyed  these  privileges.  ''  Have  we  not 
power  to  take  with  us  a  Christian  woman  as  a  wife,  as 
well  as  other  Apostles  ?  .  .  .  Or  I  only  and  Barnabas, 
have  not  we  power  to  forbear  working  ?  "  His  proof 
of  his  apostleship  is  summary:  ^'Have  I  not  seen  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord  ?  are  not  ye  my  work  in  the  Lord  ?  " 
No  one  could  be  an  apostle  who  had  not  seen  Jesus 
Christ  after  His  resurrection.  The  Apostles  were  to  be 
witnesses  to  the  Resurrection,  and  were  qualified  to  be 
so  by  seeing  the  Lord  alive  after  death.  But  it  seems 
to  have  been  commonly  urged  against  Paul  that  he  had 
not  been  among  those  to  whom  Christ  showed  Him- 
self after  He  rose  from  the  dead.  Paul  therefore 
both  in  his  reported  speeches  and  in  his  letters  insists 
upon  the  fact  that  on  the  way  to  Damascus  he  had 
seen  the  risen  Lord. 

But  not  every  one  who  had  seen  the  Lord  after  His 
resurrection  was  an  apostle,  but  those  only  who  by 
Him  were  commissioned  to  witness  to  it ;  and  that 
Paul  had  been  thus  commissioned  he  thinks  the  Corin- 
thians may  conclude  from  the  results  among  themselves 
of  his  preaching.  The  Church  at  Corinth  was  the  seal 
of  his  apostleship.  What  was  the  use  of  quibbling 
about  the  time  and  manner  of  his  ordination,  when  the 
reality  and  success  of  his  apostolic  work  were  so 
apparent  ?  The  Lord  had  acknowledged  his  work.  \\\ 
presence  of  the  finished  structure  that  draws  the  world 
to  gaze,  it  is  too  late  to  ask  if  he  who  built  it  is  an 
architect.  Would  that  every  minister  could  so  prove 
the  validity  of  his  orders  ! 

2.  Paul  maintains  his  right  to  support  on  the 
principle  of  remuneration  everywhere  observed  in  human 
affairs.      The  soldier  does   not  go  to  war  at  his  own 


200     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

expense,  but  expects  to  be  equipped  and  maintained 
in  efficiency  by  those  for  whom  he  fights.  The  vine- 
dresser, the  shepherd,  every  labourer,  expects,  and  is 
certainly  warranted  in  expecting,  that  the  toil  he 
expends  will  at  least  have  the  result  of  keeping  him 
comfortably  in  life.  However  difficult  it  is  to  lay  down 
an  absolute  law  of  wages,  this  may  at  least  be  affirmed 
as  a  natural  principle  :  that  labour  of  all  kinds  must 
be  so  paid  as  to  maintain  the  labourer  in  life  and 
efficiency ;  and  it  may  be  added  that  there  are  certain 
inalienable  human  rights,  such  as  the  right  to  bring 
up  a  family  the  members  of  which  shall  be  useful  and 
not  burdensome  to  society,  the  right  to  some  reserve 
of  leisure  and  of  strength  which  the  labourer  may  use 
for  his  own  enjoyment  and  advantage,  which  rights 
will  be  admitted  and  provided  for  when  out  of  the 
confused  war  of  theories,  and  strikes,  and  competition 
a  just  law  of  wages  has  been  won.  Happily  no  one  now 
needs  to  be  told  that  one  of  the  most  striking  results 
of  our  modern  civilisation  is  that  the  nineteenth 
century  labourer  has  less  of  the  joy  of  life  than  the 
ancient  slave,  and  that  we  have  forgotten  the  funda- 
mental law  that  the  husbandman  that  laboureth  must 
be  first  partaker  of  the  fruits. 

And  lest  any  one  should  sanctimoniously  or  ignor- 
antly  say,  "  These  secular  principles  have  no  applica- 
tion to  sacred  things,"  Paul  anticipates  the  objection, 
and  dismisses  it :  ^'  Say  I  these  things  as  a  man  ?  or 
saith  not  the  Law  the  same  also  ?  "  I  am  not  introduc- 
ing into  a  sacred  region  principles  which  rule  only  in 
secular  matters.  Does  not  the  Law  say,  "  Thou  shalt 
not  muzzle  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn  "  ?  It  must 
be  allowed  to  live  by  its  labour.  As  it  threshes  out 
the  wheat,  it  must  be  allowed  to  feed  itself,  mouthful 


ix.i-22.]     MAINTENANCE   OF  THE  MINISTRY.  2oi 

by  mouthful,  as  it  goes  on  with  its  work.  And  this 
was  not  said  in  the  Law  because  God  had  any  special 
care  for  oxen,  but  in  order  to  give  expression  to  the 
law  which  must  regulate  the  connection  between  all 
labourers  and  their  work  that  he  that  plougheth  may 
plough  in  hope,  may  have  a  personal  interest  in  his  work, 
and  may  give  himself  ungrudgingly  to  it,  assured  that 
he  himself  will  be  the  first  to  benefit  by  it. 

This  law  that  a  man  shall  live  by  his  labour  is  a 
two-edged  law.  If  a  man  produce  what  the  community 
needs,  he  should  himself  profit  by  the  production ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  if  a  man  will  not  work,  neither  should 
he  eat.  Only  the  man  who  produces  what  other  men 
need,  only  the  man  who  by  his  industry  or  capability 
contributes  to  the  good  of  the  community,  has  any  right 
to  profits.  Quick  and  eas}^  manipulations  of  money, 
shrewd  and  risky  dexterities  which  yield  no  real  benefit 
to  the  community,  deserve  no  remuneration.  It  is  a 
blind,  sordid,  and  contemptible  spirit  that  hastes 
to  be  rich  by  one  or  two  successful  transactions  that 
profit  no  one.  A  man  should  be  content  to  live  on 
what  he  is  worth  to  the  community.  Here  also  our 
minds  are  often  confused  by  the  complexities  of 
business ;  but  on  that  account  it  is  all  the  more 
necessary  that  we  firmly  adhere  to  the  few  essential 
canons,  such  as  that  ''  trading  ceases  to  be  just  w^hen 
it  ceases  to  benefit  both  parties,"  or  that  a  man's  wealth 
should  truly  represent  his  value  to  society.  Conscience 
enlightened  by  allegiance  to  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  a 
much  more  satisfactory  guide  for  the  individual  in  trade, 
speculation,  and  investment  than  any  trade  customs 
or  economic  theories. 

3.  A  third  ground  on  which  Paul  rests  his  claim 
to  be  supported  by  the  Church  is  ordinary  rratitude  : 


202     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

"  If  we  have  sown  unto  you  spiritual  things,  is  it  a 
great  thing  if  we  shall  reap  your  carnal  things  ? ' ' 
Some  of  the  Churches  founded  by  Paul  spontaneously 
acknowledged  this  claim,  and  wished  to  free  him  from 
the  necessity  of  labouring  for  his  own  support.  They 
felt  that  the  benefit  they  had  derived  from  him  could 
not  be  stated  in  terms  of  money  ;  but  prompted  by 
irrepressible  gratitude,  they  could  not  but  seek  to 
relieve  him  from  manual  labour  and  set  him  free  for 
higher  work.  This  method  of  gauging  the  amount  of 
spiritual  benefit  absorbed,  by  its  overflow  in  material 
aid  given  to  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  would,  I 
daresay,  scarcely  be  relished  by  that  monstrous 
development  the  niggardly  Christian. 

4.  Lastly,  Paul  argues  from  the  Levitical  usage  to 
the  Christian.  Both  in  heathen  countries  and  among 
the  Jews  it  was  customary  that  they  who  ministered 
in  holy  things  should  live  by  the  offerings  of  the 
people  to  the  temple.  Levites  and  priests  alike 
had  been  thus  maintained  among  the  Jews.  "  Even 
so  hath  the  Lord  ordained  that  they  which  preach 
the  Gospel  should  live  of  the  Gospel."  Were  there 
no  recorded  command  of  the  Lord  to  this  effect, 
we  might  suppose  Paul  merely  argued  that  this  was 
the  Lord's  will ;  but  among  the  original  instructions 
given  to  the  seventy  who  were  first  sent  to  preach 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  we  find  this  :  "  Into  what- 
soever house  ye  enter,  there  remain,  eating  and 
drinking  such  things  as  they  give,  for  the  labourer 
is  worthy  of  his  hire." 

That  evils  may  result  from  the  existence  of  a  paid 
ministry  no  one  will  be  disposed  to  deny.  Some  of 
the  most  disastrous  abuses  in  the  Church  of  Christ, 
as  well  as  some  of  the  gravest  political  troubles,  could 


ix.  1-22.]     MAINTENANCE   OF  THE  MINISTRY.  203 

never  have  arisen  had  there  been  no  desirable  benefices. 
Lucrative  ecclesiastical  posts  and  offices  have  neces- 
sarily excited  the  avarice  of  unworthy  aspirants,  and 
have  weakened  instead  of  strengthening  the  Church's 
influence.  Many  wealthy  ecclesiastics  have  done 
nothing  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  whereas  many 
laymen  by  their  unpaid  devotedness  have  done  much. 
In  view  of  these  and  other  evils,  it  cannot  surprise 
us  to  find  that  again  and  again  it  has  occurred  to 
good  men  to  suppose  that  on  the  whole  Christianity 
might  be  more  effectively  propagated  were  there  no 
separate  class  of  men  set  apart  to  this  work  as  their 
sole  occupation.  But  this  idea  is  reactionary  and 
extreme,  and  is  condemned  both  by  common-sense 
and  by  the  express  declarations  of  our  Lord  and 
His  Apostles.  If  the  work  of  the  ministry  is  to  be 
thoroughly  done,  men  must  give  tlieir  whole  time 
to  it.  Like  every  other  professional  work,  it  will 
often  be  done  inadequately ;  and  I  daresay  there 
is  much  in  our  methods  which  is  unwise  and  suscep- 
tible of  improvement  :  but  the  ministry  keeps  pace 
with  the  general  intelligence  of  the  country,  and  may 
be  trusted  to  adapt  its  methods,  even  though  too 
tardily  for  some  ardent  spirits,  to  the  actual  necessities. 
And  if  men  give  their  whole  time  to  the  work,  they 
must  be  paid  for  it,  a  circumstance  which  is  not  likely 
to  lead  to  much  evil  in  our  own  country  so  long  as 
the  great  mass  of  ministers  are  paid  as  they  presently 
are.  It  is  hardly  the  profession  which  is  likely  to 
be  chosen  by  any  one  who  is  anxious  to  coin  his 
life  into  money.  If  the  laity  consider  that  covetous- 
ness  is  more  unseemly  in  a  Christian  minister  than 
in  a  Christian  man,  they  have  taken  an  effectual 
means  of  barring  out  that  vice. 


204     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

Paul  felt  himself  the  more  free  to  urge  these  claims 
because  his  custom  was  to  forego  them  all  in  his  own 
case.  "  I  have  used  none  of  these  things  :  neither  have 
I  written  these  things,  that  it  should  be  so  done  unto 
me ;  for  it  were  better  for  me  to  die,  than  that  any  man 
should  make  my  glorying  void."  Here  again  we  come 
upon  the  sound  judgment  and  honest  heart  that  are 
never  biassed  by  his  own  personal  circumstances  or 
insist  that  what  is  fit  for  him  is  fit  for  every  one. 
How  apt  are  self-denying  men  to  spoil  their  self-denial 
by  dropping  a  sneer  at  the  weaker  souls  that  cannot 
follow  their  heroic  example.  How  ready  are  men  who 
can  live  on  little  and  accomplish  much  to  leave  the  less 
robust  Christians  to  justify  on  their  own  account  their 
need  of  human  comforts.  Not  so  Paul.  He  first  fights 
the  battle  of  the  weak  for  them,  and  then  disclaims 
all  participation  in  the  spoils.  What  a  nobility  and 
sagacity  in  the  man  who  himself  would  accept  no 
remuneration  for  his  work,  and  who  yet,  so  far  from 
thinking  slightingly  of  those  who  did  or  even  being 
indifferent  to  them,  argues  their  case  for  them  with  an 
authoritative  force  they  did  not  themselves  possess  ! 

Nor  does  he  consider  that  his  self-denial  is  at  all 
meritorious.  He  has  no  desire  to  signalize  himself 
as  more  disinterested  than  other  men.  On  the  contrary, 
he  strives  to  make  it  appear  as  if  this  course  were 
compulsory  and  as  if  no  choice  were  left  to  him.  His 
fear  was  that  if  he  took  remuneration,  he  ''  should  hinder 
the  Gospel  of  Christ."  Some  of  the  best  incomes  in 
Greece  in  Paul's  day  were  made  by  clever  lecturers 
and  talkers,  who  attracted  disciples,  and  initiated  them 
into  their  doctrines  and  methods.  Paul  was  resolved 
he  should  never  be  mistaken  for  one  of  these.  And 
no  doubt  his  success  was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that 


ix.  1-22.]     MAINTENANCE   OF  THE  MINISTRY.  20- 


men  recognised  that  his  teaching  was  a  labour  of  love, 
and  that  he  was  impelled  by  the  truth  and  importance 
of  his  message.  Every  man  finds  an  audience  who  is 
inwardly  impelled  to  speak  ;  who  speaks,  not  because 
he  is  paid  for  doing  so,  but  because  there  is  that  in 
him  which  must  find  utterance. 

This,  says  Paul,  was  his  case.  ^*  Though  I  preach 
the  Gospel,  I  have  nothing  to  glory  of :  for  necessity 
is  laid  upon  me ;  yea,  woe  is  unto  me,  if  I  preach  not 
the  Gospel ! "  His  call  to  the  ministry  had  been  so 
exceptional,  and  had  so  distinctly  and  emphatically 
declared  the  grace  and  purpose  of  Christ,  that  he  felt 
bound  by  all  that  can  constrain  a  man  to  the  devoted- 
ness  of  a  lifetime.  Paul  felt  what  we  now  so  clearly 
see :  that  on  him  lay  the  gravest  responsibilities.  Had 
he  declined  to  preach,  had  he  complained  of  bad  usage, 
and  stipulated  for  higher  terms,  and  withdrawn  from 
the  active  propagation  of  Christianity,  who  would  or 
could  have  taken  up  the  task  he  laid  down  ?  But  while 
Paul  could  not  but  be  conscious  of  his  importance  to 
the  cause  of  Christ,  he  would  arrogate  to  himself  no 
credit  on  account  of  his  arduous  toil,  for  from  this, 
he  says,  he  could  not  escape ;  necessity  was  laid  upon 
him.  Whether  he  does  his  work  willingly  or  unwiUingly, 
still  he  must  do  it.  He  dare  not  flinch.  If  he  does  it 
willingly,  he  has  a  reward  ;  if  he  does  it  unwillingly, 
still  he  is  entrusted  with  a  stewardship  he  dare  not 
neglect.  What  then  is  the  reward  he  has,  giving 
himself,  as  he  certainly  does,  willingly  to  the  work  ? 
His  reward  is  that  ''  when  he  preaches  the  Gospel  he 
makes  the  Gospel  of  Christ  without  charge."  The  deep 
satisfaction  he  felt  in  dissociating  the  Gospel  of  self- 
sacrifice  from  every  thought  of  money  or  remuneration 
and  in  offering  it  freely  to  the  poorest  as  his  Master  s 


zo6     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

fit  representative  was  sufficient  reward  for  him  and 
incalculably  greater  than  any  other  he  ever  got  or 
could  conceive. 

In  other  words,  Paul  saw  that  however  it  might  be 
with  other  men,  with  him  there  was  no  alternative  but 
to  preach  the  Gospel ;  the  only  alternative  was — was 
he  to  do  it  as  a  slave  entrusted  with  a  stewardship,  and 
who  was  compelled,  however  reluctant  he  might  be, 
to  be  faithful,  or  was  he  to  do  it  as  a  free  man,  with 
his  whole  will  and  heart  ?  The  reluctant  slave  could 
expect  no  reward;  he  was  but  fulfilling  an  obligatory, 
inevitable  duty.  The  free  man  might,  however,  expect 
a  reward ;  and  the  reward  Paul  chose  was  that  he 
should  have  none — none  in  the  ordinary  sense,  but 
really  the  deepest  and  most  abiding  of  all :  the  satis- 
faction of  knowing  that,  having  freely  received,  he  had 
freely  given,  and  had  lifted  the  Gospel  into  a  region 
quite  undimmed  by  the  suspicion  of  self-seeking  or  any 
mists  of  worldliness. 

In  declining  pecuniary  remuneration,  Paul  was  acting 
on  his  general  principle  of  making  himself  the  servant 
of  all  and  of  living  entirely  and  exclusively  for  the  good 
of  others.  "  Though  I  be  free  from  all  men,  yet  have 
I  made  myself  servant  unto  all,  that  I  might  gain  the 
more."  It  was  from  Paul  that  Luther  derived  his  two 
propositions  which  he  uttered  as  the  keynote  of  the 
resonant  blast  "on  Christian  Liberty"  with  which  he 
stirred  all  Europe  into  new  Hfe  :  *'  A  Christian  man 
is  the  most  free  lord  of  all,  and  subject  to  none;  a 
Christian  man  is  the  most  dutiful  servant  of  all,  and 
subject  to  every  one."  So  Paul's  independence  of  all 
men  was  assumed  and  maintained  for  the  very  purpose 
of  making  himself  the  more  effectually  the  servant  oi 
all.     To  the  Jew  and  to  those  under  the  Law  he  became 


IX.  1-22.]     MAINTENANCE   OF  THE  MINISTRY.  207 

as  a  Jew,  observing  the  seventh  day,  circumcising 
Timothy,  abstaining  from  blood,  accommodating  himself 
to  all  their  scruples.  To  those  who  were  without  the 
Law,  and  who  had  been  brought  up  in  Greece,  he  also 
conformed  himself,  freely  entering  into  their  innocent 
customs,  calling  no  meats  unclean,  appealing,  not  to 
the  law  of  Moses,  but  to  conscience,  to  common-sense, 
to  their  own  poets.  "  I  am  made  all  things  to  all  men, 
that  I  might  by  all  means  save  some" — a  course  which 
none  but  a  man  of  wide  S3^mpathy  and  charity,  clear 
intellect,  and  thorough  integrity  can  adopt. 

For  Paul  was  no  mere  latitudinarian.  While  accom- 
modating himself  to  the  practice  of  those  around  him 
in  all  matters  of  mere  outward  observance,  and  which 
did  not  touch  the  essentials  of  morality  and  faith,  he 
at  the  same  time  held  very  definite  opinions  on  the 
chief  articles  of  the  Christian  creed.  No  amount  of 
liberality  of  sentiment  can  ever  induce  a  thoughtful 
man  to  discourage  the  formation  of  opinion  on  all 
matters  of  importance.  On  the  contrary,  the  only 
escape  from  mere  traditionalism  or  the  tyranny  of 
authority  in  matters  of  religion  is  in  individual  inquiry 
and  ascertainment  of  the  truth.  Free  inquiry  is  the 
one  instrument  we  possess  for  the  discovery  of  truth  ; 
and  by  pursuing  such  inquiry  men  may  be  expected  to 
come  to  some  agreement  in  religious  belief,  as  in  other 
things.  No  doubt  righteousness  of  life  is  better  than 
soundness  of  creed.  But  is  it  not  possible  to  have 
both  ?  It  is  better  to  live  in  the  Spirit,  to  be  meek, 
chaste,  temperate,  just,  loving,  than  to  understand  the 
relation  of  the  Spirit  to  God  and  to  ourselves ;  but  the 
human  mind  can  never  cease  to  seek  satisfaction  :  and 
truth,  the  more  clearly  it  is  seen,  will  the  more 
effectually  nourish  righteousness. 


2o8     THE   FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

Again,  Paul  had  an  end  in  view  which  preserved  his 
Hberahty  from  degenerating.  He  sought  to  recommend 
himself  to  men,  not  for  his  sake,  but  for  theirs.  He 
saw  that  conscientious  scruples  were  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  malignant  hatred  of  truth,  and  that  if  we 
are  to  be  helpful  to  others,  we  must  begin  by  appreciat- 
ing the  good  they  already  possess.  Hostile  criticism 
or  argument  for  the  sake  of  victory  produces  no  results 
worth  having.  Vain  exultation  in  the  victors,  obstinacy 
and  bitterness  in  the  vanquished — these  are  worse  than 
useless,  the  retrograde  results  of  unsympathetic  argu- 
ment. In  order  to  remove  a  man's  difficulties,  you 
must  look  at  them  from  his  point  of  view  and  feel  the 
pressure  he  feels.  '*The  greatest  orator  save  one  of 
antiquity  has  left  it  on  record  that  he  always  studied 
his  adversary's  case  with  as  great,  if  not  still  greater, 
intensity  than  even  his  own;"^  and  certainly  those  who 
have  not  entered  into  the  point  of  view  of  those  who 
differ  from  them  are  not  Hkely  to  have  anything  of 
importance  to  say  to  them.  In  order  to  "  gain  "  men, 
you  must  credit  them  with  some  desire  to  see  the  truth, 
and  you  must  have  sympathy  enough  to  see  with  their 
eyes.  Parents  sometimes  weaken  their  influence  with 
their  children  by  inability  to  look  at  things  with  the 
eyes  of  youth,  and  by  an  insistence  upon  the  outward 
expressions  of  religion  which  are  distasteful  to  children 
and  suitable  only  for  adults.  Children  have  a  high 
esteem  for  justice  and  courage,  and  can  respond  to 
exhibitions  of  self-sacrifice,  and  truth,  and  purity;  that 
is  to  say,  they  have  a  capacity  for  admiring  and 
adopting  the  essentials  of  the  Christian  character,  but 
if  we    insist  upon   ihcm  exhibiting  feelings  which  are 


See  Mill's  Liberty,  p.  2  J, 


ix.  1-22.]     MAINTENANCE   OF   THE  MINISTRY.  209 

alien  to  their  nature  and  practices  necessarily  dis- 
tasteful and  futile,  we  are  more  likely  to  drive  them 
from  religion  than  to  attract  them  to  it.  Let  us  beware 
of  insisting  on  alterations  in  conduct  where  these  are 
not  absolutely  necessary.  Let  us  beware  of  identifying 
religion  in  the  minds  of  the  young  with  a  rigid  con- 
formity in  outward  things,  and  not  with  an  inward 
spirit  of  love  and  goodness.  Are  you  striving  to  gain 
some  ?  Then  let  these  words  of  the  Apostle  warn  you 
not  to  seek  for  the  wrong  thing,  not  to  begin  at  the 
wrong  end,  not  to  measure  the  hold  which  truth  has 
over  those  you  seek  to  win,  by  the  exactness  with 
which  all  your  ideas  are  carried  out  and  all  your 
customs  observed.  Human  nature  is  an  infinitely 
various  thing,  and  often  there  is  the  truest  regard  for 
what  is  holy  and  Divine  disguised  under  a  violent 
departure  from  all  ordinary  ways  of  manifesting 
reverence  and  piety.  Put  yourself  in  the  place  of  the 
inquiring,  perplexed,  embittered  soul,  find  out  the 
good  that  is  in  it,  patiently  accommodate  yourself  to 
its  ways  so  far  as  you  legitimately  may,  and  you  will 
be  rewarded  by  *^  gaining  some." 


NO!   ALL    WHO  RUN  WIN. 


"And  this  I  do  for  the  Gospel's  sake,  that  I  might  be  partaker 
thereof  with  you.  Know  ye  not  that  they  which  run  in  a  race  run 
all,  but  one  receiveth  the  prize  ?  So  run,  that  ye  may  obtain.  And 
every  man  that  striveth  for  the  mastery  is  temperate  in  all  things. 
Now  they  do  it  to  obtain  a  corruptible  crown  ;  but  we  an  incorrupt- 
ible. I  therefore  so  run,  not  as  uncertainly;  so  fight  I,  not  as  one 
that  beateth  the  air  :  but  I  keep  under  my  body,  and  bring  it  into 
subjection :  lest  that  by  any  means,  when  I  have  preached  to  others, 
I  myself  should  be  a  castaway." — i  Cor.  ix.  23-27. 


XIV 

NOT  ALL    WHO   RUN    WIN 

IN  the  preceding  part  of  this  chapter  Paul  has 
proved  his  right  to  claim  remuneration  from  those 
to  whom  he  preached  the  Gospel,  and  he  has  also  given 
his  reasons  for  declining  to  urge  this  claim.  He  was 
resolved  that  no  one  should  have  any  ground  for  mis- 
apprehending his  motive  in  preaching  the  Gospel.  He 
was  quite  content  to  live  a  bare,  poor  life,  not  merely 
that  he  might  keep  himself  above  suspicion,  but  that 
those  who  heard  the  Gospel  might  see  it  simply  as  the 
Gospel  and  not  be  hindered  from  accepting  it  by  any 
thought  of  the  preacher's  motives.  This  was  his  main 
reason  for  supporting  himself  by  his  own  labour.  But 
he  had  another  reason,  namely,  "  that  he  might  be 
himself  a  partaker  of  the  benefits  he  preached  "  (ver.  23). 
Apostle  though  he  was,  he  had  his  own  salvation  to 
work  out.  He  was  not  himself  saved  by  proclaiming 
salvation  to  others,  no  more  than  the  baker  is  fed  by 
making  bread  for  others  or  the  physician  kept  in  health 
by  prescribing  for  others.  Paul  had  a  life  of  his  own 
to  lead,  a  duty  of  his  own  to  discharge,  a  soul  of  his 
own  to  save ;  and  he  recognised  that  w^hat  was  laid 
before  him  as  the  path  to  salvation  was  to  make  himself 
entirely  the  servant  of  others.  This  he  was  resolved 
persistently  to  do,  "  lest  that  b}'  any  means,  when  he 


214     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

had  preached  to  others,  he  himself  should  be  a  cast- 
away." 

Paul  had  evidently  felt  this  danger  to  be  a  serious 
one.  He  had  found  himself  tempted  from  time  to  time 
to  rest  in  the  name  and  calling  of  an  apostle,  to  take 
for  granted  that  his  salvation  was  a  thing  past  doubt 
and  on  which  no  more  thought  or  effort  need  be 
expended.  And  he  saw  that  in  a  slightly  altered  form 
this  temptation  was  common  to  all  Christians.  All 
have  the  name,  not  all  the  reality.  And  the  very 
possession  of  the  name  is  a  temptation  to  forget  the 
reality.  It  might  almost  seem  to  be  in  the  proportion 
of  runners  to  winners  in  a  race  :  "  All  run,  but  one 
receiveth  the  prize." 

In  endeavouring  to  warn  Christians  against  resting 
in  a  mere  profession  of  faith  in  Christ,  he  cites  two 
great  classes  of  instances  which  prove  that  there  is 
often  ultimate  failure  even  where  there  has  been  con- 
siderable promise  of  success.  First,  he  cites  their  own 
world-renowned  Isthmian  games,  in  which  contests,  as 
they  all  well  knew,  not  every  one  who  entered  for  the 
prizes  was  successful :  "  All  run,  but  one  receiveth  the 
prize."  Paul  does  not  mean  that  salvation  goes  by 
competition  ;  but  he  means  that  as  in  a  race  not  all  who 
run  run  so  as  to  obtain  the  prize  for  which  they  run, 
so  in  the  Christian  life  not  all  who  enter  it  put  out 
sufficient  energy  to  bring  them  to  a  happy  issue.  The 
mere  fact  of  recognising  that  the  prize  is  worth  winning 
and  even  of  entering  for  it  is  not  enough.  And  then 
he  cites  another  class  of  instances  with  which  the  Jews 
in  the  Corinthian  Church  were  familiar.  ^*  All  our 
fathers,"  he  says,  ^*  were  under  the  cloud,  and  all  passed 
through  the  sea,  and  all  were  baptized  unto  Moses  in 
the  cloud  and  in  the  sea."    All  of  them  without  exception 


ix. 23-27.]  NOT  ALL    WHO  RUN   V/IN.  215 

enjoyed  the  outward  privileges  of  God's  people,  and 
seemed  to  be  in  a  fair  way  of  entering  the  promised 
land;  and  yet  the  majority  of  them  fell  under  God's 
displeasure,  and  were  overthrown  in  the  wilderness. 
Therefore  "  let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed 
lest  he  fall." 

The  Isthmian  games,  then,  one  of  the  most  ancient 
glories  of  Corinth,  furnished  Paul  with  the  readiest  illus- 
tration of  his  theme.  These  games,  celebrated  every 
second  year,  had  in  ancient  times  been  one  of  the  chief 
means  of  fostering  the  feeling  of  brotherhood  in  the 
Hellenic  race.  None  but  Greeks  of  pure  blood  who 
had  done  nothing  to  forfeit  their  citizenship  were 
allowed  to  contend  in  them.  They  were  the  greatest 
of  national  gatherings  ;  and  even  when  one  State  was  at 
war  with  another,  hostilities  were  suspended  during  the 
celebration  of  the  games.  And  scarcely  any  greater 
distinction  could  be  earned  by  a  Greek  citizen  than 
victory  in  these  games.  When  Paul  says  that  the  con- 
tending athletes  endured  their  severe  training  and 
underwent  all  the  privations  necessary  *^  to  obtain  a 
corruptible  crown,"  we  must  remember  that  while  it  is 
quite  true  that  the  wreath  of  pine  given  to  the  victor 
might  fade  before  the  year  was  out,  he  was  welcomed 
home  with  all  the  honours  of  a  victorious  general,  the 
wall  of  his  town  being  thrown  down  that  he  might  pass 
in  as  a  conqueror,  and  his  statue  being  set  up  by  his 
fellow-citizens.  In  point  of  fact,  the  names  and  deeds 
of  many  of  the  victors  may  yet  be  read  in  the  verses  of 
one  of  the  greatest  of  Greek  poets,  who  devoted  himself, 
as  laureate  of  the  games,  to  the  celebration  of  the 
annual  victories. 

But  however  highly  we  raise  the  value  of  the  Greek 
crown    the  force  of  Paul's  comparison  remains.     The 


2i6    THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

wreath  of  the  victor  in  the  games  was  at  the  best 
corruptible,  liable  to  decay.  No  permanent,  eternal 
satisfaction  could  result  from  being  victorious  in  a 
contest  of  physical  strength,  activity,  or  skill.  But  for 
every  man  it  is  possible  to  win  an  incorruptible  crown, 
that  which  shall  always  and  for  ever  be  to  him  a  joy  as 
thrilling  and  a  distinction  as  honourable  as  at  the 
moment  he  received  it.  There  is  that  which  is  worthy 
of  the  determined  and  sustained  effort  of  a  lifetime. 
Put  into  the  one  scale  all  perishable  distinctions,  and 
honours,  and  prizes,  all  that  has  stimulated  men  to  the 
most  strenuous  endeavours,  all  that  a  grateful  nation 
bestows  on  its  heroes  and  benefactors,  all  for  which 
men  '*  scorn  delights  and  live  laborious  days ; "  and 
all  these  kick  the  beam  when  you  put  in  the  other 
scale  the  incorruptible  crown.  The  two  are  not  neces- 
sarily opposed  or  incompatible  ;  but  to  choose  the  less  in 
preference  to  the  greater  is  to  repudiate  our  birthright. 
As  victory  in  the  games  was  the  actual  incentive  which 
stimulated  the  youth  of  Greece  to  attain  the  perfection 
of  physical  strength,  beauty,  and  development,  so  there 
is  laid  before  us  an  incentive  which,  when  clearly 
apprehended,  is  sufficient  to  carry  us  forward  to  perfect 
moral  attainment.  The  brightest  jewel  in  the  incorrupt- 
ible crown  is  the  joy  of  having  become  all  God  made 
us  to  become,  of  perfectly  fulfilling  the  end  of  our 
creation,  of  being  able  to  find  happiness  in  goodness,  in 
closest  fellowship  with  God,  in  promoting  what  Christ 
lived  and  died  to  promote.  Must  we  say  that  there  are 
men  who  have  no  ambition  to  experience  perfect  recti- 
tude and  purity  ?  Are  we  to  conclude  that  there  are 
men  of  so  grovelling,  besotted,  and  blind  a  spirit  that 
when  opportunity  is  given  them  to  win  true  glory, 
perfect  expansion  and  growth  of  spirit,  and  perfect  joy 


ix.  23-27.]  NOT  ALL    WHO  RUN  WIN.  217 

they  turn  away  to  salaries  and  profits,  to  meat  and 
drink,  to  frivolity  and  the  world's  routine  ?  The  incor- 
ruptible crown  is  held  over  their  head  ;  but  so  intent  are 
they  on  the  muck-rake,  they  do  not  even  see  it. 

To  those  who  would  win  it  Paul  gives  these  direc- 
tions : — 

I.  Be  temperate.  "Every  man  that  striveth  for  the 
mastery  is  temperate  in  all  things."  Contentedly  and 
without  a  murmur  he  submits  himself  to  the  rules  and 
restrictions  of  his  ten  months'  training,  without  which 
he  may  as  well  not  compete.  The  little  indulgences 
which  other  men  allow  themselves  he  must  forego. 
Not  once  will  he  break  the  trainer's  rules,  for  he  knows 
that  some  competitors  will  refrain  even  from  that  once 
and  gain  strength  while  he  is  losing  it.  He  is  proud 
of  his  little  hardships,  and  fatigues,  and  privations,  and 
counts  it  a  point  of  honour  scrupulously  to  abstain 
from  anything  which  might  in  the  slightest  degree 
diminish  his  chance  of  success.  He  sees  other  men 
giving  way  to  appetite,  resting  while  he  is  panting 
with  exertion,  luxuriating  in  the  bath,  enjoying  life  at 
pleasure  ;  but  he  has  scarce  a  passing  thought  of  envy, 
because  his  heart  is  set  on  the  prize,  and  severe 
training  is  indispensable.  He  knows  that  his  chances 
are  gone  if  in  any  point  or  on  any  occasion  he  relaxes 
the  rigour  of  the  discipline. 

The  contest  in  which  Christians  are  engaged  is  not 
less,  but  more,  severe.  The  temperance  maintained  by 
the  athlete  must  be  outdone  by  the  Christian  if  he  is 
to  be  successful.  There  are  many  things  in  which 
men  who  have  no  thought  of  the  incorruptible  prize 
may  engage,  but  from  which  the  Christian  must  refrain. 
All  that  lowers  the  tone  and  slackens  the  energies 
must  be  abandoned.     If  the  Christian  indulges  in  the 


2i8     IHE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

pleasures  of  life  as  freely  as  other  men,  if  he  is  un- 
conscious of  any  severity  of  self-restraint,  if  he  denies 
himself  nothing  which  others  enjoy,  he  proves  that  he 
has  no  higher  aim  than  they  and  can  of  course  win 
no  higher  prize.  The  temperance  here  enjoined,  and 
which  the  Christian  practises,  not  because  it  is  enjoined, 
but  because  a  higher  aim  truly  cherished  compels  him 
to  practise  it,  is  a  habitual  sober-mindedness  and 
detachment  from  what  is  worldly  in  the  world.  It  is 
that  temper  of  spirit  and  that  sustained  attitude  to- 
wards life  which  enable  a  man  to  rule  his  own  desires, 
to  endure  hardness  and  find  pleasure  in  so  doing. 
No  spasmodic,  occasional  efforts  and  partial  abstinences 
will  ever  bring  a  man  victorious  to  the  goal.  Many 
a  man  denies  himself  in  one  direction  and  indulges 
himself  in  another.  He  macerates  the  flesh,  but 
pampers  the  spirit  by  vanity,  ambition,  or  self-righteous- 
ness. Or  he  denies  himself  some  of  the  pleasures 
of  life,  but  is  more  besotted  by  its  gains  than  other 
men.  Temperance  to  be  effectual  must  be  complete. 
The  athlete  who  drinks  more  than  is  good  for  him 
may  save  himself  the  trouble  of  observing  the  trainer's 
rules  as  to  what  he  eats.  It  is  lost  labour  to  develop 
some  of  his  muscles  if  he  do  not  develop  all  of 
them.  If  he  offends  in  one  point,  he  breaks  the  whole 
law. 

Temperance  must  be  continuous  as  well  as  complete. 
One  day's  debauch  was  enough  to  undo  the  result  of 
weeks  during  which  the  athlete  had  carefully  attended 
to  the  rules  prescribed.  And  we  find  that  one  lapse 
into  worldliness  undoes  what  years  of  self-restraint  have 
won.  Always  the  work  of  growth  is  very  slow,  the 
work  of  destruction  very  quick.  One  indiscretion  on 
the  part  of  the  convalescent  will  undo  what  the  car^ 


ix.  23-27.]  NOT  ALL    WHO  RUN  WIN.  219 

of  months  has  slowly  achieved.  One  fraud  spoils  the 
character  for  honesty  which  years  of  upright  living 
have  earned.  And  this  also  is  one  of  the  great 
dangers  of  the  spiritual  life  :  that  a  Httle  carelessness, 
a  brief  infidelity  to  our  high  calling,  or  a  passing  in- 
dulgence suddenly  demolishes  what  long  and  patient 
toil  has  been  building  up.  It  is  hke  the  taking  out 
of  a  pin  or  a  ratchet  that  lets  all  we  have  gained  run 
down  to  its  old  condition. 

Beware  then  of  giving  place  to  the  world  or  the 
flesh  at  any  point.  Be  reasonable  and  true.  Recog- 
nise that  if  you  are  to  succeed  in  winning  eternal  life, 
all  the  spiritual  energy  you  can  command  will  be  re- 
quired. So  set  your  heart  on  the  attainment  of  things 
eternal  that  you  will  not  grudge  missing  much  that 
other  men  enjoy  and  possess.  Measure  the  invitations 
of  life  by  their  fitness  or  unfitness  to  develop  within 
you  true  spiritual  energy. 

2.  Be  decided.  '^  I  run,"  says  Paul,  "  not  as  uncer- 
tainly," not  as  a  man  who  does  not  know  where  he  is 
going  or  has  not  made  up  his  mind  to  go  there.  To 
be  among  those  who  win  as  well  as  among  those  who 
run,  we  must  know  where  we  are  going,  and  be  quite 
sure  we  mean  to  be  there.  We  have  all  some  kind  of 
idea  about  what  God  offers  and  calls  us  to.  But  this 
idea  must  be  clear  if  we  are  to  make  for  it  straight. 
No  man  can  run  straight  to  a  mere  will-o'-the-wisp, 
and  no  man  can  run  straight  who  first  means  to  go  to 
one  house  or  station  and  then  changes  his  mind  and 
thinks  he  should  go  to  another.  We  must  count  the 
cost  and  see  clearly  what  we  are  to  gain  and  what  we 
must  lose  by  making  for  the  incorruptible  prize.  We 
must  be  resolved  to  win  and  have  no  thought  of  defeat, 
of  failure,  of  doing  something  better.     It  is  the  absence 


220     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

of  deliberate  choice  and  reasonable  decision  which 
causes  such  "  uncertain  "  running  on  the  part  of  many 
who  profess  to  be  in  the  race.  Their  faces  are  as 
often  turned  from  the  goal  as  towards  it.  They  are 
evidently  not  clear  in  their  own  minds  that  all  strength 
spent  in  any  other  direction  than  towards  the  goal  is 
wasted.  They  do  not  distinctly  know  what  they  mean 
to  be  at,  what  they  wish  to  make  of  life.  Paul  did 
know.  He  had  made  up  his  mind  not  to  pursue 
comfort,  learning,  money,  respect,  position,  but  to  seek 
first  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  judged  that  to  spread 
the  knowledge  of  Christ  was  the  best  use  to  which  he 
could  put  his  life.  He  knew  where  he  was  going  and  to 
what  all  his  efforts  tended.  Every  life  is  unsatisfactory 
until  its  owner  has  made  up  his  mind  what  he  means 
to  do  with  it,  until  it  is  governed  by  a  clearly  conceived 
and  firmly  held  aim.  Then  it  flies  like  the  arrow  to 
its  mark. 

What  then  do  the  traces  of  our  past  life  show  ? 
Do  we  see  the  straight  track  of  a  well-steered  ship, 
which  has  deviated  not  a  yard  from  its  course  nor 
wasted  an  ounce  of  power  ?  Has  every  footfall  been 
in  direct  advance  of  the  last,  and  has  all  expenditure 
of  energy  brought  us  nearer  the  ultimate  goal  ?  Or 
are  the  traces  we  look  back  on  like  ground  trodden 
by  dancers,  a  confused  medley  all  in  one  spot,  or  like 
the  footsteps  of  saunterers  in  a  garden  backwards  and 
forwards,  according  as  this  or  that  has  attracted  them  ? 
Has  not  the  course  of  many  of  us  been  like  that  of 
persons  lost,  uncertain  which  direction  to  pursue, 
eagerly  starting  off,  but  after  a  little  slackening  their 
pace,  stopping,  looking  round,  and  then  going  off  in 
another  direction  ?  For  some  weeks  a  great  deal  of 
ardour  has  been  apparent,  the  whole  man  girt  up,  every 


ix.  23-27.]  NOT  ALL    WHO  RUN  WIN.  221 

nerve  strained,  the  whole  attention  directed  towards 
spiritual  victory,  arrangements  made  to  facilitate  com- 
munion with  God,  new  methods  devised  for  subor- 
dinating all  our  work  to  the  one  great  aim,  everything 
gone  about  as  if  now  at  last  we  had  found  the  secret 
of  living;  and  then  in  a  surprisingly  short  time  all 
this  eagerness  cools  down,  doubt  takes  the  place  of 
decision,  discouragement  and  failure  breed  distrust  of 
our  methods,  and  we  lapse  into  contentment  with 
easier  attainments  and  more  worldly  aims.  And  at 
length,  after  many  false  starts,  we  are  ashamed  to  begin 
any  arduous  spiritual  task  for  fear  of  ceasing  it  next 
week.  We  think  that  the  surest  way  to  make  fools  of 
ourselves  is  to  adopt  a  thorough-going  Christian  prac- 
tice, so  much  do  we  count  upon  ourselves  flagging, 
wearying,  altering  our  course.  How  many  times  have 
we  been  rekindled  to  some  true  zeal,  how  often  have 
we  gathered  up  our  scattered  energies  and  concentrated 
our  efforts  on  the  Christian  life,  and  yet  as  often  have 
we  gone  back  to  a  dreamy,  listless  sauntering,  as  if  we 
had  nothing  to  secure,  no  end  to  reach,  no  work  to 
accomplish. 

Are  we  likely  ever  to  reach  the  goal  thus  ?  Will  the 
goal  come  to  us,  or  how  are  we  ever  to  reach  it  ?  Are 
we  nearer  to  it  to-day  than  ever  before  ?  Are  not  our 
minds  yet  made  up  that  it  is  worth  reaching,  and 
that  whatever  does  not  help  us  towards  it  must  be 
abandoned  ?  Let  us  be  clear  in  our  own  minds  as  to 
the  matters  which  tempt  us  aside  from  the  straight 
path  to  the  goal  and  are  incompatible  with  progress; 
and  let  us  determine  whether  these  things  are  to 
prevail  with  us  or  not. 

3.  Be  in  earnest.  "  So  fight  I,  not  as  one  that 
beateth  the  air,"  not  as  one  amusing  himself  with  idle 


222     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 

flourishes,  but  as  one  who  has  a  real  enemy  to  encounter. 
What  a  blush  does  this  raise  on  the  cheek  of  every 
Christian  who  knows  himself!  How  much  of  this 
mere  parade  and  sham-fighting  is  there  in  the  Christian 
army  !  We  learn  the  art  of  war  and  the  use  of  our 
weapons  as  if  we  were  forthwith  to  use  them  in  the 
field ;  we  act  over  and  learn  many  varieties  of  offensive 
and  defensive  movements,  and  know  the  rules  by  which 
spiritual  foes  may  be  subdued ;  we  read  books  which 
direct  us  about  personal  religion,  and  delight  in  those 
which  most  skilfully  lay  open  our  weaknesses  and  show 
us  how  we  may  overcome  them.  But  all  this  is  mere 
fencing-school  work ;  it  kills  no  enemy.  It  is  but  a 
species  of  accomplishment  like  that  of  those  who  learn 
the  use  of  the  sword,  not  because  the}^  mean  to  use 
it  in  batde,  but  that  they  may  have  a  more  elegant 
carriage.  A  great  part  of  our  spiritual  strength  is 
spent  in  mere  parade.  It  is  not  meant  to  have  any 
serious  efiect.  It  is  not  directed  against  anything  in 
particular.  We  seem  to  be  doing  everything  that  a 
good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ  need  do  save  the  one 
thing:  we  slay  no  enemy.  We  leave  no  foe  stone-dead 
on  the  field.  We  are  well  trained :  no  one  can  deny  it ; 
we  could  instruct  others  how  to  conquer  sin ;  v.e  spend 
much  time,  and  thought,  and  feeling  on  exercises  which 
are  calculated  to  make  an  impression  on  sin  ;  and  yet 
is  it  not  almost  entirely  a  beating  the  air  ?  Where  are 
our  slain  foes  ?  This  apparent  eagerness  to  be  holy, 
this  professed  devctedness  to  the  cause  of  Christ — are 
they  not  mere  flouiish?  We  do  not  mean  to  strike  our 
enemies ;  we  for  the  most  part  only  \\  ish  to  make 
ourselves  believe  we  are  striking  them  and  are  zealous 
and  faithful  soldiers  of  Christ. 

Even  where  there  is  s^nje  reality  in  the  contest  we 


ix.  23-27.]  NOT  ALL    WHO  RUN   WIN.  223 

may  still  be  beating  the  air.  We  may  be  able  to  say 
that  we  have  apprehended  the  reality  of  the  moral 
warfare  to  which  every  man  is  called  in  this  life.  We 
may  be  able  honestly  to  say  that  if  our  sins  are  not 
slain,  it  is  neither  because  we  have  not  recognised  them, 
nor  because  we  have  aimed  no  blows  at  them.  We 
have  made  serious  and  honest  efforts  to  destroy  sin, 
and  yet  our  blows  seem  to  fall  short ;  and  sin  stands 
before  us  vigorous  and  lively,  and  as  ready  as  ever  to 
give  us  a  fall.  Many  persons  who  level  blows  at  their 
sins  do  not  after  all  strike  them.  Spiritual  energy  is 
put  forth ;  but  it  is  not  brought  fully,  fairly,  and  firmly 
into  contact  with  the  sin  to  be  destroyed.  In  most 
Christian  people  there  is  a  great  expenditure  of  thought 
and  of  feeling  about  sin  ;  their  spirit  is  probably  more 
exercised  about  their  sins  than  about  anything  else:  and 
a  great  deal  of  spiritual  life  is  expended  in  the  shape 
of  shame,  compunction,  penitence,  resolve,  self-restraint, 
watchfulness,  prayer.  All  this,  were  it  brought  directly 
to  bear  on  some  definite  object,  would  produce  great 
effect ;  but  in  many  cases  no  good  whatever  seems  to 
result. 

Paul's  language  suggests  that  possibly  the  reason 
may  be  that  there  remains  in  the  heart  some  reluctance 
quite  to  kill  and  put  an  end  to  sin,  to  beat  all  the  hfe 
out  of  it.  It  is  like  a  father  fighting  with  his  son :  he 
wishes  to  defend  himself  and  disarm  his  son,  but  not 
to  kill  him.  We  may  be  willing  or  even  intensely 
anxious  to  escape  the  blows  sin  aims  at  us ;  we  may 
be  desirous  to  wound,  hamper,  and  limit  our  sin,  and 
keep  it  under  control ;  we  may  wish  to  tame  the  wild 
animal  and  domesticate  it,  so  as  to  make  it  yield  some 
pleasure  and  profit,  and  yet  be  reluctant  to  slay  it 
outright.     The  soul  and  life  of  every  sin  is  some  lust 


224     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

of  our  own ;  and  while  quite  anxious  to  put  an  end  to 
some  of  the  evils  this  lust  produces  in  our  life,  we  may 
not  be  prepared  to  extinguish  the  lust  itself.  We  pray 
God,  for  example,  to  preserve  us  from  the  evils  of 
praise  or  of  success ;  and  yet  we  continue  to  court 
praise  and  success.  We  are  unable  to  sacrifice  the 
pleasure  for  the  sake  of  the  safety.  Therefore  our 
warfare  against  sin  becomes  unreal.  Our  blows  are 
not  delivered  home,  but  beat  the  air.  Unconsciously 
we  cherish  the  evil  desire  within  us  which  is  the  soul 
of  the  sin,  and  seek  to  destroy  only  some  of  its 
manifestations. 

The  result  of  such  unreal  contest  is  detrimental. 
Sin  is  like  something  floating  in  the  air  or  the  water : 
the  very  effort  we  make  to  grasp  and  crush  it  displaces 
it,  and  it  floats  mockingly  before  us  untouched.  Or 
it  is  like  an  agile  antagonist  who  springs  back  from 
our  blow,  so  that  the  force  we  have  expended  merely 
racks  and  strains  our  own  sinews  and  does  him  no 
injury.  So  when  we  spend  much  effort  in  conquering 
sin  and  find  it  as  lively  as  ever,  the  spirit  is  strained 
and  hurt  by  putting  out  force  on  nothing.  It  is  less 
able  than  before  to  resist  sin,  less  believing,  less  hopeful, 
inwardly  ill  at  ease  and  distracted.  It  becomes  con- 
fused and  disheartened,  disbelieves  in  itself,  and  scoffs 
at  fresh  resolves  and  endeavours. 

Finally,  Paul  tells  us  what  that  enemy  was  against 
which  he  directed  his  well-aimed,  firmly  planted  blows. 
It  was  his  own  body.  Every  man's  body  is  his  enemy 
when,  instead  of  being  his  servant,  it  becomes  his 
master.  The  proper  function  of  the  body  is  to  serve 
the  will,  to  bring  the  inner  man  into  contact  with  the 
outer  world  and  enable  him  to  influence  it.  When  the 
body  mutinies   and   refuses  to  obey  the  will,  when  it 


•x.  23-27.]  NOT  ALL    WHO  RUN   WIN.  225 


usurps  authority  and  compels  the  man  to  do  its  bidding, 
it  becomes  his  most  dangerous  enemy.  When  Paul's 
body  presumed  to  dictate  to  his  spirit,  and  demanded 
comforts  and  indulgences,  and  shrank  from  hardship, 
he  beat  it  down.  The  word  he  uses  is  an  exceptionally 
strong  one :  "  I  keep  under ; "  it  is  a  technical  term  of  the 
games,  and  means  to  strike  full  in  the  face.  It  was  the 
word  used  of  the  most  damaging  blow  one  boxer  could 
give  another.  This  unmerciful,  overpowering  blow 
Paul  dealt  to  his  body,  resisting  its  assaults  and  making 
it  helpless  to  tempt  him.  He  thus  brought  it  into 
subjection,  made  it  his  slave,  as  the  winner  in  some  of 
the  games  had  a  right  to  carry  the  vanquished  into 
slavery. 

It  was  probably  by  sheer  strength  of  will  and  by  the 
grace  of  Christ  that  Paul  subdued  his  body.     Many  in 
all  ages  have  striven  to  subdue  it  by  fasting,  by  scourg- 
ing, by  wakefulness  ;  and  of  these  practices  we  have  no 
right  to  speak  scornfully  until  we  can  say  that  by  other 
means  we  have  reduced  the  body  to  its  proper  position 
as  the  servant  of  the  spirit.     Can  we  say  that  our  body 
is  brought  into  subjection  ;  that  it  dare  not  curtail  our 
devotions  on  the  plea  of  weariness  ;    that  it  dare  not 
demand  a  dispensation  from  duty  on  the  score  of  some 
slight  bodily  disturbance  ;    that  it  never  persuades  us 
to  neglect  any  duty  on  the  score  of  its  unpleasantness 
to  the  flesh ;  that  it  never  prompts  us  to  undue  anxiety 
either  about  what  we  shall  eat  or  drink  or  wherewithal 
we  shall  be  clothed  ;  that  it  never  quite  treads  the  spirit 
under  foot  and  defiles  it  with  wicked  imaginings  ?    There 
is  a  fair  and  reasonable  degree  in  which  a  man  may 
and  ought  to  cherish  his   own  flesh,  but  there  is  also 
needful  a  disregard  to  many  of  its  claims  and  a  hard- 
hearted obduracy  to  its  complaints.     In  an  rge  when 

15 


226     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

Spartan  simplicity  of  life  is  almost  unknown,  it  is  very 
easy  to  sow  to  the  flesh  almost  without  knowing  it 
until  we  find  ourselves  reaping  corruption. 

Probably  nothing  more  effectually  slackens  our  efforts 
in  the  spiritual  life  than  the  sense  of  unreality  which 
haunts  us  as  we  deal  with  God  and  the  unseen.  With 
the  boxer  in  the  games  it  was  grim  earnest.  He  did 
not  need  any  one  to  tell  him  that  his  life  depended  on 
his  ability  to  defend  himself  against  his  trained  antago- 
nist. Every  faculty  must  be  on  the  alert.  No  dreamer 
has  here  a  chance.  What  we  need  is  something  of  the 
sam.e  sense  of  reality,  that  it  is  a  life-and-death  contest 
we  are  engaged  in,  and  that  he  that  treats  sin  as  a 
weak  or  pretended  antagonist  will  shortly  be  dragged 
a  mangled  disgrace  out  of  the  arena. 


FALLACIOUS  PRESUMPTIONS, 


"  Moreov^er,  brethren,  I  would  not  that  ye  should  be  ignorant,  how 
that  all  our  fathers  were  under  the  cloud,  and  all  passed  through  the 
sea;  and  were  all  baptized  urto  Moses  in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea, 
and  did  all  eat  the  same  spiritual  meat ;  and  did  all  drink  the  samt 
spiritual  drink  :  for  they  drank  of  that  spiritual  Rock  that  followeo 
them  :  and  that  Rock  was  Christ.     But  with  many  of  them  God  was 
not  well  pleased  :  for  they  were  overthrown  in  the  wilderness.     Now 
these  things  were  our  examples,  to  the  intent  we  should  not  lus\ 
after  evil  things,   as  they  also  lusted.     Neither  be  ye  idolaters,  as 
were  some  of  them ;  as  it  is  written,  The  people  sat  down  to  eal 
and  drink,  and  rose  up  to  play.     Neither  let  us  commit  fornication, 
as  some  of  them  committed,  and  fell  in  one  day  three-and-twenty 
thousand.    Neither  let  us  tempt  Christ,  as  some  of  them  also  tempted, 
and  were  destroyed   of  serpents.     Neither  murmur  ye,   as  some  oi 
them  also  murmured,  and  were  destroyed  of  the  destroyer.     Now  all 
these    things   happened    unto    them   for    ensamples :    and    they   are 
written  for  our  admonition,  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are 
come      Wherefore  let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed  lest 
he  fall.     There  hath  no  temptation  taken  you  but  such  as  is  common 
to  man  :  but  God  is  faithful,  who  will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted 
above  that  ye  are  able  ;  but  will  with  the  temptation  also  make  a 
way  to  escape,   that  ye  may   be  able   to  bear  it.      Wherefore,   my 
dearly  beloved,  flee  from  idolatry.     I  speak  as  to  wise  men  ;  judge  3'e 
what   I   say.      The  cup  of  blessing   which  we   bless,   is  it  not   the 
communion  of  the  blood  of  Christ  ?     The  bread  which  we  break,  is  it 
not  the  communion  of  the  body  of  Christ  ?     For  we  being  many  are 
one  bread,  and  one  body :  for  we  are  all  partakers  of  that  one  bread. 
Behold  Israel  after  the  flesh :  are  not  they  which  eat  of  the  sacrifices 
partakers  of  the  altar  ?     What  say  I  then  ?  that  the  idol  is  anything, 
or  that  which  is  offered  in  sacrifice  to  idols  is  anything  ?     But  I  saj', 
that  the  things  which  the  Gentiles  sacrifice,  they  sacrifice  to  devils, 
and   not  to  God  :  and  I  would  not  that  ye  should  have  fellowship 
with  devils.     Ye  cannot  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord,  and  the  cup  of 
devils :  ye  cannot  be  partakers  of  the  Lord's  table,  and  of  the  table 
of  devils.     Do  we  provoke  the  Lord  to  jealousy  ?  are  we  stronger 
than  He?" — I  Cor.  x.  1-22. 


XV. 

FALLACIOUS  PRESUMPTIONS, 

IN  discussing  the  question  regarding  ^' things  offered 
unto  idols/'  Paul  is  led  to  treat  at  large  of 
Christian  liberty,  a  subject  to  which  he  was  always 
drawn.  And  partly  to  encourage  the  Christians  of 
Corinth  to  consider  their  weak  and  prejudiced  brethren, 
partly  for  other  reasons,  he  reminds  them  how  he  him- 
self abridged  his  liberty  and  departed  from  his  just 
claims  in  order  that  the  Gospel  he  preached  might  find 
readier  acceptance.  Besides,  not  only  for  the  sake  of 
the  Gospel  and  of  other  men,  but  for  his  own  sake  also, 
he  must  practise  self-denial.  It  would  profit  him 
nothing  to  have  been  an  apostle  unless  he  practised 
what  he  preached.  He  had  felt  that  in  considering  the 
spiritual  condition  of  other  men  and  trying  to  advance 
it  he  was  apt  to  forget  his  own ;  and  he  saw  that  all 
men  were  more  or  less  liable  to  the  same  temptation, 
and  were  apt  to  rest  in  the  fact  that  they  were  Chris- 
tians and  to  shrink  from  the  arduous  life  which  gives 
that  name  its  meaning.  By  means  of  two  illustrations 
Paul  fixes  this  idea  in  their  minds,  first  pointing  them 
to  their  own  games,  in  which  they  saw  that  not  all  who 
entered  for  the  race  obtained  the  prize,  and  then  pointing 
them  to  the  history  of  Israel,  in  which  they  might 
plainly  read  that  not  all  who  began  the  journey  to  the 
promised  land  found  entrance  into  it. 


230     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

The  Israelites  of  the  Exodus  are  here  introduced  as 
exemplifying  a  common  experience.  They  accepted 
the  position  of  God's  people,  but  failed  in  its  duties. 
They  perceived  the  advantages  of  being  God's  subjects, 
but  shrank  from  much  which  this  implied.  They  were 
willing  to  be  delivered  from  bondage,  but  found  them- 
selves overweighted  by  the  responsibilities  and  risks 
of  a  free  hfe.  They  were  in  contact  with  the  highest 
advantages  men  need  possess,  and  yet  failed  to  use 
them. 

The  amount  of  conviction  which  prompts  us  to  form 
a  connection  with  Christ  may  be  insufficient  to  stimu- 
late us  to  do  and  endure  all  that  results  from  that 
connection.  The  children  of  Israel  were  all  baptized 
unto  Moses,  but  they  did  not  implemicnt  their  baptism 
by  a  persistent  and  faithful  adherence  to  him.  They 
were  baptized  unto  Moses  by  their  acceptance  of  his 
leadership  in  the  Exodus.  By  passing  through  the 
Red  Sea  at  his  command  they  definitely  renounced 
Pharaoh  and  abandoned  their  old  life,  and  as  definitely 
pledged  and  committed  themselves  to  throw  in  their  lot 
with  Moses.  By  passing  the  Egyptian  frontier  and 
following  the  guidance  of  the  pillar  of  cloud  they  pro- 
fessed their  willingness  to  exchange  a  Hfe  of  bondage, 
with  its  security  and  occasional  luxuries,  for  a  life  of 
freedom,  with  its  hazards  and  hardships;  and  by  that 
passage  of  the  Red  Sea  they  were  as  certainly  sworn 
to  support  and  obey  Moses  as  ever  was  Roman  soldier 
who  took  the  oath  to  serve  his  emperor.  When,  at 
Brederode's  invitation,  the  patriots  of  Holland  put  on 
the  beggar's  wallet  and  tasted  wine  from  the  beggar's 
bowl,  they  were  baptized  unto  William  of  Orange  and 
their  country's  cause.  When  the  sailors  on  board  the 
Swan  weighed  anchor  and  beat  out  of  Plymouth,  they 


X.  1-22.]  FALLACIOUS  PRESUMPTIONS.  231 

were  baptized  unto  Drake  and  pledged  to  follow  him 
and  fight  for  him  to  the  death.  Baptism  means  much ; 
but  if  it  means  anything,  it  means  that  we  commit  and 
pledge  ourselves  to  the  life  we  are  called  to  by  Him  in 
whose  name  we  are  baptized.  It  draws  a  line  across 
the  life,  and  proclaims  that  to  whomsoever  in  time 
past  we  have  been  bound,  and  for  whatsoever  we  have 
lived,  we  now  are  pledged  to  this  new  Lord,  and  are 
to  live  in  His  service.  Such  a  pledge  was  given  by 
every  Israelite  who  turned  his  back  on  Egypt  and 
passed  through  that  sea  which  was  the  defence  of 
Israel  and  destruction  to  the  enemy.  The  crossing  was 
at  once  actual  deliverance  from  the  old  life  and  irre- 
vocable committal  to  the  new.  They  died  to  Pharaoh, 
and  were  born  again  to  Moses.  They  were  baptized 
unto  Moses. 

And  as  the  Israelites  had  thus  a  baptism  analogous 
to  the  one  Christian  sacrament,  so  had  they  a  spiritual 
food  and  drink  in  the  wilderness  which  formed  a 
sacrament  analogous  to  the  Christian  communion. 
They  were  not  shut  out  of  Egypt,  and  imprisoned  in 
the  desert,  and  left  to  do  the  best  they  could  on  their 
own  resources.  If  they  failed  to  march  steadily  forward 
and  fulfil  their  destiny  as  the  emancipated  people  of 
God,  this  failure  was  not  due  to  any  neglect  on  God's 
part.  The  fare  might  be  somewhat  Spartan,  but  a 
sufficiency  was  always  provided.  He  who  had  en- 
couraged them  to  enter  on  this  new  life  was  prepared 
to  uphold  them  in  it  and  carry  them  through. 

One  of  the  expressions  used  by  Paul  in  describing 
the  sustenance  of  the  Israelites  has  given  rise  to  some 
discussion.  *^  They  did  all  drink,"  he  says,  ''  the 
same  spiritual  drink,  for  they  drank  of  that  spiritual 
Rock  that  followed  them ;  and  that  Rock  was  Christ," 


232     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

Now  there  happened  to  be  a  Jewish  tradition  which 
gave  out  that  the  rock  smitten  by  Moses  was  a 
detached  block  or  boulder,  "  globular,  like  a  beehive," 
which  rolled  after  the  camp  in  its  line  of  march,  and 
was  always  at  hand,  with  its  unfailing  water-supply. 
This  is  altogether  too  grotesque  an  idea.  The  fact 
is  that  the  Israelites  did  not  die  of  thirst  in  the 
wilderness.  It  was  quite  likely  they  should;  and 
but  for  the  providential  supply  of  water,  so  large  a 
company  could  not  have  been  sustained.  And  no 
doubt  not  only  in  the  rock  at  Rephidim  at  the  begin- 
ning of  their  journey  and  the  rock  of  Kadesh  at  its 
close,  but  in  many  most  unlikely  places  during  the 
intervening  years,  water  was  found.  So  that  in  looking 
back  on  the  entire  journey  it  might  very  naturally  be 
said  that  the  rock  had  followed  them,  not  meaning  that 
wherever  they  went  they  had  the  same  source  to 
draw  from,  but  that  throughout  their  journeyings  they 
were  supplied  with  water  in  places  and  ways  as 
unexpected  and  unlikely. 

Paul's  point  is  that  in  the  wilderness  the  food 
and  drink  of  the  Israelites  were  ^'  spiritual,"  or,  as 
we  should  more  naturally  say,  sacramental ;  that  is 
to  say,  their  sustenance  continually  spoke  to  them  of 
God's  nearness  and  reminded  them  that  they  were 
His  people.  And  as  Christ  Himself,  when  He  lifted 
the  bread  at  the  Last  Supper,  said,  "  This  is  My  body," 
so  does  Paul  use  analogous  language  and  say,  "  That 
Rock  was  Christ,"  an  expression  which  gives  us 
considerable  insight  into  the  significance  of  the 
Israelitish  types  of  Christ,  and  helps  to  rid  our 
minds  of  some  erroneous  impressions  we  are  apt  to 
cherish  regarding  them. 

The  manna  and  the  water  from  the  rock  were  given 


X.  1-22.]  FALLACIOUS  PRESUMPTIONS.  233 

to  sustain  the  Israelites  and  carry  them  towards  their  \ 
promised  land,  but  they  were  so  given  as  to  quicken  1 
faith  in  God.  To  every  Israelite  his  daily  nourish- 
ment might  reasonably  be  called  spiritual,  because  it 
reminded  him  that  God  was  with  him  in  the  wilderness,  • 
and  prompted  him  to  think  of  that  purpose  and 
destiny  for  the  sake  of  which  God  was  sustaining 
the  people.  To  the  devout  among  them  their  daily 
food  became  a  means  of  grace,  deepening  their  faith 
in  the  unseen  God  and  rooting  their  life  in  a  true 
dependence  upon  Him.  The  manna  and  the  water 
from  the  rock  were  sacramental,  because  they  were 
continuous  signs  and  seals  of  God's  favour  and  re- 
deeming efficiency  and  promise.  They  were  types 
of  Christ,  serving  for  Israel  in  the  wilderness  the 
purpose  which  Christ  serves  for  us,  enabling  them 
to  believe  in  a  heavenly  Father  who  cared  for  them 
and  accomplishing  the  same  spiritual  union  with  the 
unseen  God  which  Christ  accomplishes  for  us. 

It  was  in  this  sense  that  Paul  could  say  that  the 
rock  was  Christ.  The  Israelites  in  the  wilderness 
did  not  know  that  the  rock  was  a  type  of  Christ. 
They  did  not,  as  they  drank  of  the  water,  think  of 
One  who  was  to  come  and  satisfy  the  whole  thirst 
of  men.  The  types  of  Christ  in  the  old  times  did 
not  enable  men  to  forecast  the  future ;  it  was  not 
through  the  future  they  exercised  an  influence  for 
good  on  the  mind.  They  worked  by  exciting  there 
and  then  in  the  Jewish  mind  the  same  faith  in  God 
which  Christ  excites  in  our  mind.  It  was  not 
knowledge  that  saved  the  Jew,  but  faith,  attachment 
to  the  living  God.  It  was  not  the  fragmentary  and 
disjointed  picture  of  a  Redeemer  thrown  on  the 
screen    of  his   hopes   by  the    types,  nor   was   it   any 


234     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

thought  of  a  future  Dehverer,  which  saved  him,  but 
his  beHef  in  God  as  his  Redeemer  there  and  then. 
This  belief  was  quickened  by  the  various  institutions, 
providences,  and  objects  by  which  God  convinced  the 
Jews  that  He  was  their  Friend  and  Lord.  Sacrifice 
they  accepted  as  an  institution  of  God's  appointment 
intended  to  encourage  them  to  beheve  in  the  forgive- 
ness of  sin  and  in  God's  favour  ;  and  without  any 
thought  of  the  reahzed  ideal  of  sacrifice  in  Christ,  the 
believing  and  devout  Israelite  entered  through  sacrifice 
into  fellowship  with  God.  Every  sacrifice  was  a  type 
of  Christ ;  it  did  foreshadow  that  which  was  to  be  :  but 
it  was  a  type,  not  because  it  revealed  Christ  to  those 
who  saw  or  offered  it,  but  because  for  the  time  being 
it  served  the  same  purpose  as  Christ  now  serves, 
enabling  men  to  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 

But  while  in  the  mind  of  the  Israelite  there  was  no 
connection  of  the  type  with  the  Christ  that  was  to 
come,  there  was  in  reality  a  connection  between  them. 
The  redemption  of  men  is  one  whether  accomplished  in 
the  days  of  the  Exodus  or  in  our  own  time.  The  idea 
or  plan  of  salvation  is  one,  resting  always  on  the  same 
reasons  and  principles.  The  Israelites  were  pardoned 
in  view  of  the  incarnation  and  atonement  of  Christ  just 
as  we  are.  If  it  was  needful  for  our  salvation  that 
Christ  should  come  and  live  and  suffer  in  human 
nature,  it  was  also  needful  for  their  salvation.  The 
Lamb  was  slain  "from  the  foundation  of  the  world," 
and  the  virtue  of  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary  was  efficacious 
for  those  who  lived  before  as  well  as  for  those  who 
lived  after  it.  To  the  mind  of  God  it  was  present,  and 
in  His  purpose  it  was  determined,  from  the  beginning; 
and  it  is  in  view  of  Christ's  incarnation  and  work  that 
sinners  early  or  late  have  been  restored  to  God.     So 


X.  1-22.]  FALLACIOUS  PRESUMPTIONS,  235 

that  everything  by  which  God  instructed  men  and 
taught  them  to  believe  in  His  mercy  and  hoHness  was 
connected  with  Christ.  It  was  to  Christ  it  owed  its 
existence,  and  really  it  was  a  shadow  of  the  coming 
substance.  And  as  the  shadow  is  named  from  the 
substance,  it  may  truly  be  said,  *'  That  Rock  was  Christ. "_ 

These  outward  blessings  then  of  which  St.  Paul  here 
speaks  had  very  much  the  same  nature  as  the  Christian 
sacraments  to  which  he  tacitly  compares  them.  They 
were  intended  to  convey  greater  gifts  and  be  the 
channels  of  a  grace  more  valuable  than  themselves. 
But  to  most  of  the  Israelites  they  remained  mere 
manna  and  vrater,  and  brought  no  firmer  assurance  of 
God's  presence,  no  more  fruitful  acceptc.r.ce  of  God's 
purpose.  The  majority  took  the  husk  and  threw  away 
the  kernel ;  were  so  delayed  by  the  wrappings  that  they 
forgot  to  examine  the  gift  they  enclosed  ;  accepted  the 
physical  nourishment,  but  rejected  the  spiritual  strength 
it  contained.  Instead  of  learning  from  their  wilderness 
experience  the  sufficiency  of  Jehovah  and  gathering 
courage  to  fulfil  His  purpose  with  them,  they  began  to 
murmur  and  lust  after  evil  things,  and  were  destroyed 
by  the  destroyer.  They  had  been  baptized  unto 
Moses,  pledging  themselves  to  his  leadership  and 
committing  themselves  to  the  new  life  he  opened  to 
them  ;  they  had  been  sustained  by  manna  and  water 
from  the  rock,  which  plainly  told  them,  that  all  nature 
would  work  for  them  if  they  pressed  forward  to  their 
God-appointed  destiny  :  but  the  most  of  them  shrank 
from  the  hardships  and  hazards  of  the  way,  and  could 
not  hft  their  heart  to  the  glory  of  being  led  by  God 
and  used  to  fulfil  His  greatest  purposes. 

And  so,  says  Paul,  it  may  be  with  you.  It  is  possible 
that  you  may  have  been  baptized  and  may  have  pro- 


y 


236     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 

fessedly  committed  yourself  to  the  Christian  career,  it 
is  possible  you  may  have  partaken  of  that  bread  and 
wine  which  convey  undying  life  and  energy  to  believing 
recipients,  and  may  yet  have  failed  to  use  these  as 
spiritual  food,  enabling  you  to  fulfil  all  the  duties  of  the 
life  you  are  pledged  to.  Had  it  been  enough  merely  to 
show  a  readiness  to  enter  on  the  more  arduous  life, 
then  all  Israel  would  have  been  saved,  for  ^'  all " 
without  exception  passed  through  the  Red  Sea  and 
committed  themselves  to  life  under  God's  leadership. 
Had  it  been  enough  outwardly  to  participate  in  that 
which  actually  links  men  to  God,  then  all  Israel  would 
have  been  inspired  by  God's  Spirit  and  strength,  for 
"  all "  without  exception  partook  of  the  spiritual  food 
and  the  spiritual  drink.  But  the  disastrous  and 
undeniable  result  was  that  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
were  overtnrown  in  the  wilderness  and  did  never  set 
foot  in  the  land  of  promise.  And  men  have  not  yet 
outlived  this  same  danger  of  committing  themselves  to 
a  life  they  find  too  hard  and  full  of  risk.  They  see  the 
advantages  of  a  Christian  career,  and  connect  themselves 
with  the  Christian  Church ;  they  instinctively  perceive 
that  it  is  there  God  is  most  fully  known,  and  that  the 
purposes  of  God  are  there  concentrated  and  running 
on  to  direct  and  perfect  results  ;  they  are  drawn  by 
their  better  self  to  throw  in  their  lot  with  the  Church, 
to  forget  competing  advantages,  and  spend  themselves 
wholly  on  what  is  best :  and  yet  the  difficulty  of 
standing  alone  and  acting  on  individual  conviction 
rather  than  on  current  understandings,  the  wearing 
depression  of  personal  failure  and  insufficiency  for  high 
and  spiritual  attainment,  the  distraction  of  the  haunting 
doubt  that  after  all  they  are  making  sacrifices  and  suffer- 
ing privations  which  are  fruitless,  unwise,  unnecessary, 


X.  1-22.]  FALLACIOUS  PRESUMPTIONS.  237 

gradually  betray  the  spirit  into  virtual  renunciation  of 
all  Christian  hopes  and  into  a  practical  willingness  to 
return  to  the  old  hfe.  And  thus  as  the  wilderness 
came  to  be  spotted  all  over  with  the  burial-places  of 
those  who  had  left  the  Red  Sea  behind  them  with 
shouts  of  triumph  and  with  hopes  that  broke  out  in 
song  and  dancing,  as  the  route  of  that  once  jubilant 
host  might  at  last  have  been  traced,  as  the  great  slave- 
routes  of  Africa  are  traceable,  by  the  bones  of  men  and 
the  skeletons  of  children,  so,  alas !  might  the  Church's 
march  through  the  centuries  be  recognised  by  the  far 
more  horrifying  remains  of  those  who  once,  with  liveliest 
hope  and  unbroken  sense  of  security,  joined  themselves 
to  the  people  of  Christ,  but  silently  lost  hold  of  the 
hope  that  once  drew  them  on  and  either  stole  away 
on  private  enterprises  of  their  own  and  were  destroyed 
of  the  destroyer,  or  withered  in  helpless  imbecihty, 
murmuring  at  their  lot  and  stone-bHnd  to  its  glory. 
As  the  retreat  of  Napoleon's  '^  grand  army "  from 
Moscow  was  marked  by  corpses  wearing  the  French 
uniform,  but  bringing  neither  strength  nor  lustre  to 
their  cause,  so  must  shame  be  reflected  on  the  Church 
by  the  countless  numbers  of  those  who  can  be  identified 
with  Christ's  cause  only  by  the  uniform  they  wear,  and 
not  by  any  victories  they  have  won.  There  were  in  the 
wilderness  districts  through  which  no  Israelite  would 
willingly  pass,  districts  in  which  many  thousands  had 
fallen,  and  which  were  branded  as  vast  "  graves  of 
lust,"  places  whose  very  name  stirred  a  deeper  horror 
and  raised  a  quicker  blush  on  the  Israelite's  cheek  than 
is  raised  on  the  EngHshman's  by  the  mention  of  Majuba 
Hill  or  Brad  don's  defeat.  And  the  Church's  territory 
also  is  spotted  with  those  vast  charnel-houses  and 
places  of  defeat  where  even   her  mighty  have  fallen, 


238     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

where  the  earth  refuses  to  cover  the  disgrace  and  blot 
out  the  stain.  These  are  not  things  of  the  past. 
While  women  and  children  are  starved  though  they 
toil  all  day  and  half  the  night,  with  eagerest  energy 
and  the  skill  necessity  gives ;  while  life  is  to  so  many 
thousands  in  our  land  a  joyless  and  hopeless  misery  ; 
while  trade  not  only  panders  to  covetousness  and 
selfishness,  but  directly  contributes  to  what  is  immoral 
and  destructive,  we  can  scarcely  speak  of  the  "glorious 
marching "  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  We  have  our 
places  of  horror,  which  no  right-hearted  Christian  can 
think  of  without  a  shudder. 

But  while  the  distinction  between  the  life  we 
naturally  seek  and  that  to  which  God  calls  us  is  felt 
by  all  from  age  to  age,  the  forms  in  which  this  distinc- 
tion makes  itself  felt  vary  as  the  world  grows  older. 
To  all  men  living  in  a  world  of  sense  it  is  difficult  to 
live  by  faith  in  the  unseen.  To  every  man  it  is  the 
ultimate,  severest  test  of  character  to  determine  for 
what  ends  he  will  Hve  and  to  carry  out  this  determina- 
tion ;  but  the  temptations  which  avail  to  draw  men 
aside  from  their  reasonable  decision  are  various  as 
the  men  themselves.  Paul  names  the  temptations 
to  which  the  Corinthians,  in  common  with  the  Israelites, 
were  exposed  :  idolatry,  fornication,  murmuring,  tempt- 
ing Christ.  He  saw  clearly  how  difficult  it  was  for 
the  Corinthians  to  discard  all  heathen  customs,  how 
much  of  what  had  been  brightest  in  their  life  they 
must  sacrifice  if  they  were  to  renounce  absolutely  the 
religion  of  their  parents  and  friends  and  all  the  joyous, 
if  licentious,  customs  associated  with  that  religion. 
Apparently  some  of  them  thought  they  might  pass 
from  the  Christian  communion  to  the  heathen  temple, 
and    after   partaking   of  Christ's    sacrament   eat    and 


X.  1-22.]  FALLACIOUS  PRESUMPTIONS.  239 

drink  in  the  idolatrous  festival,  entering  into  the  entire 
service.  They  seemed  to  think  that  they  might  be 
both  Christians  and  pagans. 

Against  this  vain  attempt  to  combine  the  incom- 
patible Paul  warns  them.  Do  not  tempt  Christ,  he 
says,  by  experimenting  how  far  He  will  bear  with 
your  conformity  to  idolatry.  Some  of  the  Israelites 
did  so,  and  were  destroyed  by  serpents.  Do  not 
murmur  that  you  are  hereby  severed  from  all  the 
enjoyments  of  life,  dissociated  from  your  heathen 
friends,  blackballed  in  society  and  in  business,  ex- 
cluded from  all  national  festivals  and  from  many  private 
entertainments ;  do  not  count  up  your  losses,  but  your 
gains.  Your  temptations  are  severe,  but  ''  there  hath 
no  temptation  taken  you  but  such  as  is  common  to 
man."  Every  man  must  make  up  his  mind  to  a  certain 
kind  of  life  and  go  through  with  it.  No  man  can  unite 
in  his  own  life  all  advantages.  He  must  deliberate 
and  choose ;  and  having  made  his  choice,  he  must  not 
lament  what  he  loses  or  be  tempted  from  striving  to 
gain  what  he  judges  best  by  weakly  and  greedily 
craving  for  the  second-best  also.  He  may  win  the 
first  prize  ;  he  may  win  the  second  :  he  cannot  win 
both,  and  if  he  tries,  he  will  win  neither. 

The  practical  outcome  of  all  that  Paul  has  thus 
rapidly  passed  in  review  he  utters  in  the  haunting 
words,  ''  Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed 
lest  he  fall."  In  this  life  we  are  never  beyond  the 
reach  of  temptation.  And  these  temptations  to  which 
all  of  us  are  exposed  are  real ;  they  do  sufficiently  test 
character  and  show  what  it  actually  is.  Our  suppo- 
sitions regarding  ourselves  are  often  untrue.  There 
is  no  reality  corresponding.  Our  state  is  actually  not 
such  as   we   conceive  it  to  be.     We  are  at  ease  and 


240     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

complacent  when  we  ought  not  to  be  at  ease.  We 
think  we  stand  secure  when  we  are  on  the  point  of 
falling.  We  live  as  if  we  had  reached  the  goal  when 
the  whole  journey  is  yet  before  us.  Our  future  may 
be  very  different  from  what  we  wish  or  expect.  Mere 
satisfaction  with  our  present  condition  is  a  very  insecure 
foundation  on  which  to  build  our  hope  for  the  future. 
Mere  reliance  on-  a  profession  we  have  made,  or  on 
the  fact  that  we  are  within  reach  of  means  of  grace, 
tends  only  to  slacken  our  energies.  Heedlessness, 
taking  things  for  granted,  failure  to  sift  matters 
thoroughly  out,  an  indolent  unwillingness  to  probe 
our  spiritual  condition  to  the  quick — this  is  what  has 
betrayed  multitudes  of  Christians.  "  Wherefore  let 
him  that  thinketh  he  standeth  take  heed  lest  he  fall." 

If  determined  wickedness  has  slain  its  thousands, 
heedlessness  has  slain  its  tens  of  thousands.  Through 
lack  of  watchfulness  men  fall  into  sin  which  entangles 
them  for  life  and  thwarts  their  best  purposes.  Through 
want  of  watchfulness  men  go  on  in  sin  which  exceed- 
ingly provokes  God,  till  at  last  His  hand  falls  heavily 
upon  them.  Every  man  is  apt  to  lay  too  much  stress  I 
on  the  circumstance  that  he  has  joined  himself  to  the  ' 
number  of  those  who  own  the  leadership  of  Christ. 
The  question  remains.  How  far  has  he  gone  with  his 
Leader  ?  Many  an  Israelite  compassionated  the  poor 
heathen  whom  he  left  behind  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  yet  found  that,  with  all  his  own  apparent  nearness 
to  God,  his  heart  was  heathen  still.  Whoever  takes 
it  for  granted  that  things  are  well  with  him,  whoever 
''  thinketh  he  standeth  " — he  is  the  man  who  has  especial 
and  urgent  need  to  "  take  heed  lest  he  fall." 


THE   VEIL, 


l6 


"  Be  ye  followers  of  me,  even  as  I  also  am  of  Christ.  Now  I  praise 
you,  brethren,  that  ye  remember  me  in  all  things,  and  keep  the 
ordinances,  as  I  delivered  them  to  3'ou.  But  I  would  have  you  know, 
that  the  head  of  every  man  is  Christ ;  and  the  head  of  the  woman  is 
the  man  ;  and  the  head  of  Christ  is  God.  Every  man  praying  or 
prophesying,  having  his  head  covered,  dishonoureth  his  head.  But 
every  woman  that  prayeth  or  prophesieth  with  her  head  uncovered 
dishonoureth  her  head  :  for  that  is  even  all  one  as  if  she  were  shaven. 
For  if  the  woman  be  not  covered,  let  her  also  be  shorn  :  but  if  it  be 
a  shame  for  a  woman  to  be  shorn  or  shaven,  let  her  be  covered.  For 
a  man  indeed  ought  not  to  cover  his  head,  forasmuch  as  he  is  the 
image  and  glory  of  God  :  but  the  woman  is  the  glory  of  the  man. 
For  the  man  is  not  of  the  woman;  but  the  woman  of  the  man. 
Neither  was  the  man  created  for  the  woman  ;  but  the  woman  for 
the  man.  For  this  cause  ought  the  woman  to  have  power  on  her 
head  because  of  the  angels.  Nevertheless  neither  is  the  man  without 
the  woman,  neither  the  woman  without  the  man,  in  the  Lord.  For 
as  the  woman  is  of  the  man,  even  so  is  the  man  also  by  the  woman ; 
but  all  things  of  God.  Judge  in  yourselves  :  is  it  comely  that  a 
woman  pray  unto  God  uncovered  ?  Doth  not  even  nature  itself 
teach  you,  that,  if  a  man  have  long  hair,  it  is  a  shame  unto  him  ? 
But  if  a  woman  have  long  hair,  it  is  a  glory  to  her:  for  her  hair  is 
given  her  for  a  covering.  But  il  any  man  seem  to  be  contentious, 
we  have  no  such  custom,  neither  the  Churches  of  God." — i  Cor. 
xi.  i-i6. 


XVI. 

THE    VEIL. 

AT  this  point  of  the  Epistle  Paul  passes  from  the 
topics  regarding  which  the  Corinthians  had  re- 
quested him  to  inform  them,  to  make  some  remarks  on 
the  manner  in  which,  as  he  had  heard,  they  were  con- 
ducting their  meetings  for  public  worship.  The  next 
four  chapters  are  occupied  with  instructions  as  to  what 
constitutes  seemliness  and  propriety  in  such  meetings. 
He  desires  to  express  in  general  his  satisfaction  that 
on  the  whole  they  had  adhered  to  the  instructions  he 
had  already  given  them  and  the  arrangements  he  had 
himself  made  while  in  Corinth.  "  I  praise  you,  brethren, 
that  ye  remember  me  in  all  things,  and  keep  the  ordi- 
nances, as  I  delivered  them  to  you."  Yet  there  are  one 
or  two  matters  which  cannot  be  spoken  of  in  terms 
of  commendation.  He  heard,  in  the  first  place,  with 
surprise  and  vexation,  that  not  only  were  women  pre- 
suming to  pray  in  public  and  address  the  assembled 
Christians,  but  even  laid  aside  while  they  did  so  the 
characteristic  dress  of  their  sex,  and  spoke,  to  the 
scandal  of  all  sober-minded  Orientals  and  Greeks, 
unveiled.  To  reform  this  abuse  he  at  once  addresses 
himself.  It  is  a  singular  specimen  of  the  strange 
matters  that  must  have  come  before  Paul  for  decision 
when  the  care  of  all  the  Churches  lay  upon  him.     And 


244     THE   FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

his  settlement  of  it  is  an  admirable  illustration  of  his 
manner  of  resolving  all  practical  difficulties  by  means 
of  principles  which  are  as  true  and  as  useful  for  us 
to-day  as  they  were  for  those  primitive  Christians  who 
had  heard  his  own  voice  admonishing  them.  In  treating 
ethical  or  practical  subjects,  Paul  is  never  superficial, 
never  content  with  a  mere  rule. 

In  order  to  see  the  import  and  importance  of  this 
matter  of  dress,  we  must  first  of  all  know  how  it  came 
to  pass  that  the  Christian  women  should  have  thought 
of  making  a  demonstration  so  unfeminine  as  to  shock 
the  very  heathen  around  them.  What  was  their  inten- 
tion or  meaning  in  doing  so  ?  What  idea  was  possessing 
their  minds  ?  Throughout  this  long  and  interesting 
letter,  Paul  is  doing  little  else  than  endeavouring  to 
correct  the  hasty  impressions  which  these  new  believers 
were  receiving  regarding  their  position  as  Christians. 
A  great  flood  of  new  and  vast  ideas  was  suddenly 
poured  in  upon  their  minds ;  they  were  taught  to 
look  differently  on  themselves,  differently  on  their 
neighbours,  differently  on  God,  differently  on  all  things. 
Old  things  had  in  their  case  passed  away  with  a  will, 
and  all  things  had  become  new.  They  were  made  alive 
from  the  dead,  they  were  born  again,  and  did  not  know 
how  far  this  affected  the  relationships  with  this  world 
into  which  their  natural  birth  had  brought  them.  The 
facts  of  the  second  birth  and  the  new  life  took  such 
hold  upon  them,  that  they  could  not  for  a  time  under- 
stand how  they  were  yet  connected  with  the  old  life. 
So  that  for  some  of  them  Paul  had  to  solve  the  simplest 
problems,  as,  for  example,  we  find  that  the  believing 
husband  was  in  doubt  whether  he  should  live  with  his 
wife  who  remained  an  unbeliever,  for  was  it  not  abhor- 
rent to  nature  that  he,  the  living,  should  be  bound  to 


xi.  i-i6.i  THE    VEIL.  145 

the  dead,  that  a  child  of  God  should  remain  in  the  most 
intimate  connection  with  one  who  was  yet  a  child  of 
wrath  ?  Was  this  not  a  monstrous  anomaly,  for  which 
prompt  divorce  was  the  fit  remedy  ?  That  such  ques- 
tions as  these  should  be  put  shows  us  how  difficult 
these  early  Christians  found  it  to  adjust  themselves 
as  children  of  God  to  their  position  in  a  corrupt, 
condemned  world. 

Now  one  of  the  ideas  in  Christianity  which  was 
newest  to  them  was  the  equality  of  all  before  God,  an 
idea  well  calculated  to  take  powerful  and  absorbing 
hold  of  a  world  half  slaves,  half  masters.  The  emperor 
and  the  slave  must  equally  give  account  to  God.  Caesar 
is  not  above  responsibility;  the  barbarian  who  swells 
his  triumph  and  is  afterwards  slaughtered  in  his  dungeon 
or  his  theatre  is  not  beneath  it.  Each  man  and  each 
woman  must  stand  alone  before  God,  and  for  himself 
and  herself  give  account  of  the  Hfe  received  from  God. 
Alongside  of  this  idea  came  that  of  the  one  Saviour 
for  all  alike,  the  common  salvation  accessible  to  all  on 
equal  terms,  and  partaking  of  which  all  became  brethren 
and  on  a  level,  one  with  Christ  and  one  therefore  with 
each  other.  There  was  neither  Greek  nor  barbarian, 
male  nor  female,  bond  nor  free,  now.  These  three 
mighty  distinctions  that  had  tyrannized  over  the  ancient 
world  were  abolished,  for  all  were  one  in  Christ  Jesus. 
It  dawned  on  the  barbarian  that  though  there  was  no 
Roman  citizenship  for  him  nor  any  entrance  into  the 
mighty  commonwealth  of  Greek  literature,  he  had  a 
citizenship  in  heaven,  was  the  heir  of  God,  and  could 
command  even  with  his  barbaric  speech  the  ear  of  the 
Most  High.  It  dawned  on  the  slave  as  his  fetter 
galled  him,  or  as  his  soul  sank  under  the  sad  hopeless- 
ness of  his  life,  that  he  was  God's  redeemed,  rescued 


V 


246     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

from  the  bondage  of  his  own  evil  heart,  and  superior 
to  all  curse,  being  God's  friend.  And  it  dawned  on 
the  woman  that  she  was  neither  man's  toy  nor  man's 
slave,  a  mere  luxury  or  appendage  to  his  establishment, 
but  that  she  also  had  herself  a  soul,  a  responsibility 
equally  momentous  with  the  man's,  and  therefore  a 
life  to  frame  for  herself.  The  astonishment  with  which 
such  ideas  must  have  been  received,  so  subversive  of 
the  principles  on  which  heathen  society  was  proceeding, 
it  is  impossible  now  to  realize;  but  we  cannot  wonder 
that  they  should  by  their  fresh  power  and  absorbing 
novelty  have  carried  the  Christians  to  quite  the 
opposite  extremes  from  those  at  which  they  had  been 
living. 

In  the  case  before  us  the  women  who  had  been 
awakened  to  a  sense  of  their  own  personal,  individual 
responsibility  and  their  equal  right  to  the  highest 
privileges  of  men  began  to  think  that  in  all  things 
they  should  be  recognised  as  the  equals  of  the  other 
sex.  They  were  one  with  Christ ;  men  could  have  no 
higher  honour  :  was  it  not  obvious  that  they  were  on 
an  equality  with  those  who  had  held  them  so  cheap  ? 
They  had  the  Holy  Ghost  dwelling  in  them ;  might  not 
they,  as  well  as  the  men,  edify  Christian  assemblies  by 
uttering  the  inspirations  of  the  Spirit  ?  They  were  not 
dependent  on  men  for  their  Christian  privileges ;  ought 
not  they  to  show  this  by  laying  aside  the  veil,  which 
was  the  acknowledged  badge  of  dependence  ?  This 
laying  aside  of  the  veil  was  not  a  mere  change  of 
fashion  in  dress,  of  which,  of  course,  Paul  would  have 
had  nothing  to  say ;  it  was  not  a  feminine  device  for 
showing  themselves  to  better  advantage  among  their 
fellow-worshippers;  it  was  not  even,  though  this  also, 
alas  1  falls  within  the  range  of  possible  supposition,  the 


xi.  i.i6.]  THE    VEIL.  247 

immodest  boldness  and  forwardness  which  are  some- 
times seen  to  accompany  in  both  sexes  the  profession 
of  Christianity  ;  but  it  was  the  outward  expression  and 
easily  read  symbol  of  a  great  movement  on  the  part  of 
women  in  assertion  of  their  rights  and  independence. 

The  exact  meaning  of  the  laying  aside  of  the  veil 
thus  becomes  plain.  It  was  the  part  of  female  attire 
which  could  most  readily  be  made  the  symbol  of  a 
change  in  the  views  of  women  regarding  their  own 
position.  It  was  the  most  significant  part  of  the 
woman's  dress.  Among  the  Greeks  it  was  the  universal 
custom  for  the  women  to  appear  in  public  with  the  head 
covered,  commonly  with  the  corner  of  their  shawl  drawn 
over  their  head  like  a  hood.  Accordingly  Paul  does  not 
insist  on  the  face  being  covered,  as  in  Eastern  countries, 
but  only  the  head.  This  covering  of  the  head  could  be 
dispensed  with  only  in  places  where  they  were  secluded 
from  public  view.  It  was  therefore  the  recognised  badge 
of  seclusion  ;  it  was  the  badge  which  proclaimed  that 
she  who  wore  it  was  a  private,  not  a  public,  person, 
finding  her  duties  at  home,  not  abroad,  in  one  house- 
hold, not  in  the  city.  And  a  woman's  whole  life  and 
duties  ought  to  lie  so  much  apart  from  the  public  eye, 
that  both  sexes  looked  upon  the  veil  as  the  truest  and 
most  treasured  emblem  of  woman's  position.  In  this 
seclusion  there  was  of  course  implied  a  limitation  of 
woman's  sphere  of  action  and  a  subordination  to  one 
man's  interests  instead  of  to  the  public.  It  was  the 
man's  place  to  serve  the  State  or  the  public,  the 
woman's  place  to  serve  the  man.  And  so  thoroughly 
was  it  recognised  that  the  veil  was  a  badge  setting  forth 
this  private  and  subordinate  position  of  the  woman,  that 
it  was  the  one  significant  rite  in  marriage  that  she 
assumed  the  veil  in  token  that  now  her  husband  was 


24S     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

her  head,  to  whom  she  was  prepared  to  hold  herself 
subordinate.  The  laying  aside  the  veil  was  therefore 
an  expression  on  the  part  of  the  Christian  women 
that  their  being  assumed  as  members  of  Christ's  body 
raised  them  out  of  this  position  of  dependence  and 
subordination. 

This  movement  of  the  Corinthian  women  towards 
independence,  on  the  ground  that  all  are  one  in  Christ 
Jesus,  Paul  meets  by  reminding  them  that  personal 
equality  is  perfectly  consistent  with  social  subordina- 
tion. It  was  quite  true,  as  Paul  himself  had  taught 
them,  that,  so  far  as  their  connection  with  Christ  went, 
there  was  no  distinction  of  sex.  To  the  woman,  as  to 
the  man,  the  offer  of  salvation  was  made  directly.  It 
was  not  through  her  father  or  her  husband  that  the 
woman  had  to  deal  with  Christ.  She  came  into  contact 
with  the  living  God  ana  united  herself  to  Christ  inde- 
pendently of  any  male  representative  and  on  the  same 
footing  as  her  male  relatives.  There  is  but  one  Christ 
for  all,  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  male  and  female ; 
and  all  are  received  by  Him  on  the  same  footing,  no 
distinction  being  made.  While  then  in  things  civil  and 
social  the  husband  represents  the  wife,  he  cannot  do  so 
in  matters  of  rehgion.  Here  each  person  must  act  for 
himself  or  herself.  And  the  woman  must  not  con- 
found these  two  spheres  in  which  she  moves,  or  argue 
that  because  she  is  independent  of  her  husband  in  the 
greater,  she  must  also  be  independent  of  him  in  the 
less.  Equality  in  the  one  sphere  is  not  inconsistent  with 
subordination  in  the  other.  "  I  would  have  you  know, 
that  the  head  of  every  man  is  Christ ;  and  the  head  ot 
the  woman  is  the  man ;  and  the  head  of  Christ  is  God." 

The  principle  enounced  in  these  words  is  of  incalcu- 
lable importance  and  very  wide  and  constant  application. 


xi.  i-i6.]  THE    VEIL,  249 

Whatever  is  meant  by  the  natural  equality  of  men,  it 
cannot  mean  that  all  are  to  be  in  every  respect  on  the 
same  level,  and  that  none  are  to  have  authority  over 
others.  The  application  of  Paul's  principle  to  the 
matter  in  hand  alone  here  concerns  us.  The  woman 
must  recognise  that  as  Christ,  though  equal  with  the 
Father,  is  subordinate  to  Him,  so  is  she  herself  sub- 
ordinate to  her  husband  or  her  father.  In  her  private 
worship  she  deals  with  Christ  independently ;  but  when 
she  appears  in  public  and  social  worship,  she  appears 
as  a  woman  with  certain  social  relations.  Her  relation 
to  Christ  does  not  dissolve  her  relations  to  society. 
Rather  does  it  intensify  them.  The  inward  change 
that  has  passed  upon  her  and  the  new  relation  which 
she  has  formed  independently  of  her  husband  only 
strengthen  the  bond  by  which  she  is  tied  to  him. 
When  a  boy  becomes  a  Christian,  that  confirms,  and  in 
no  degree  relaxes,  his  subordination  to  his  parents.  He 
holds  a  relation  to  Christ  which  they  could  not  form 
for  him,  and  which  they  cannot  dissolve ;  but  this  inde- 
pendence in  one  matter  does  not  make  him  independent 
in  everything.  A  commissioned  officer  in  the  army 
holds  his  commission  from  the  Crown  ;  but  this  does  not 
interfere  with,  but  only  confirms,  his  subordination  to 
officers  who,  like  himself,  are  servants  of  the  Crown,  but 
above  him  in  rank.  In  order  to  the  harmony  of  society, 
there  is  a  gradation  of  ranks  ;  and  social  grievances 
result,  not  from  the  existence  of  social  distinctions,  but 
from  their  abuse. 

This  gradation  then  involves  Paul's  inference  that 
'^  every  man  praying  or  prophesying,  having  his  head 
covered,  dishonoureth  his  head.  But  every  woman  that 
prayeth  or  prophesieth  with  her  head  uncovered  dis- 
honoureth her  head."     The  veil  being  the  recognised 


250     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

badge  of  subordination,  when  a  man  appears  veiled  he 
would  seem  to  acknowledge  some  one  present  and  visible 
as  his  head,  and  would  thus  dishonour  Christ,  his  true 
Head.  A  woman,  on  the  other  hand,  appearing  unveiled 
would  seem  to  say  that  she  acknowledges  no  visible 
human  head,  and  thereby  dishonours  her  head — that  is, 
her  husband — and  so  doing,  dishonours  herself.  For  a 
woman  to  appear  unveiled  on  the  streets  of  Corinth 
was  to  proclaim  her  shame.  And  so,  says  Paul,  a 
woman  who  in  public  worship  discards  her  veil  might 
as  well  be  shaven.  She  puts  herself  on  the  level  of  the 
woman  with  a  shaven  head,  which  both  among  Jews 
and  Greeks  was  a  brand  of  disgrace.  In  the  eye  of 
the  angels,  who,  according  to  the  Jewish  belief,  were 
present  in  meetings  for  worship,  the  woman  is  disgraced 
who  does  not  appear  with  "  power  on  her  head  ;  "  that  is 
to  say,  with  the  veil  by  which  she  silently  acknowledges 
the  authority  of  her  husband. 

This  subordination  of  the  woman  to  the  man  belongs 
not  merely  to  the  order  of  the  Christian  Church,  but 
has  its  roots  in  nature.  "  Man  is  the  image  and  glory 
of  God :  but  the  woman  is  the  glory  of  the  man." 
Paul's  idea  is  that  man  was  created  to  represent  God 
and  so  to  glorify  Him,  to  be  a  visible  embodiment  of 
the  goodness,  and  wisdom,  and  power  of  the  unseen 
God.  Nowhere  so  clearly  or  fully  as  in  man  can  God 
be  seen.  Man  is  the  glory  of  God  because  he  is  His 
image  and  is  fitted  to  exhibit  in  actual  life  the  excel- 
lencies which  make  God  worthy  of  our  love  and 
worship.  Looking  at  man  as  he  actually  and  broadly 
is,  we  may  think  it  a  bold  saying  of  Paul  when  he 
says,  "  Man  is  the  glory  of  God  ; "  and  yet  on  considera- 
tion we  see  that  this  is  no  more  than  the  truth.  We 
should  not  scruple  to  say  of  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  that 


xi.  i-i6.]  THE    VEIL,  251 

He  is  the  glory  of  God,  that  in  the  whole  universe 
of  God  nothing  can  more  fully  reveal  the  infinite  Divine 
goodness.  In  Him  we  see  how  truly  man  is  God's 
image,  and  how  fit  a  medium  human  nature  is  for 
expressing  the  Divine.  We  know  of  nothing  higher 
than  what  Christ  said,  did,  and  was  during  the  few 
months  He  went  about  among  men.  He  is  the  glory 
of  God  ;  and  every  man  in  his  degree,  and  according 
to  his  fidelity  to  Christ,  is  also  the  glory  of  God. 

This  is  of  course  true  of  woman  as  well  as  of  man. 
It  is  true  that  woman  can  exhibit  the  nature  of  God 
and  be  His  glory  as  well  as  man.  But  Paul  is  placing 
himself  at  the  point  of  view  of  the  writer  of  Genesis 
and  speaking  broadly  of  God's  purpose  in  creation. 
And  he  m^eans  that  God's  purpose  was  to  express 
Himself  fully  and  crown  all  His  works  by  bringing 
into  being  a  creature  made  in  His  image,  able  to  subdue, 
and  rule,  and  develop  all  that  is  in  the  world.  This 
creature  wcs  man,  a  masculine,  resolved,  capable 
creature.  And  just  as  it  appeals  to  our  sense  of  fitness 
that  when  God  became  incarnate  He  should  appear 
as  man,  and  not  as  woman,  so  does  it  appeal  to  our 
sense  of  fitness  that  it  is  man,  and  not  woman,  who 
should  be  thought  of  as  created  to  be  God's  representa- 
tive on  earth.  But  while  man  directly,  woman  in- 
directly, fulfils  this  purpose  of  God.  She  is  God's 
glory  by  being  man's  glory.  She  serves  God  by 
serving  man.  She  exhibits  God's  excellencies  by 
creating  and  cherishing  excellence  in  man.  Without 
woman  man  cannot  accom.plish  aught.  The  woman 
is  created  for  the  man,  because  without  her  he  is 
helpless.  ^^  For  as  the  woman  is  of  the  man,  even  so 
is  the  man  also  by  the  woman." 

But  as  man  becomes  actually  the  glory  of  God  when 


±$2     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

he  perfectly  subordinates  himself  to  God  with  the 
absolute  devotedness  of  love,  so  does  woman  become 
the  glory  of  man  when  she  upholds  and  serves  man 
with  that  perfect  devotedness  of  which  woman  so  con- 
stantly shows  herself  to  be  capable.  It  is  in  winning 
the  self-sacrificing  love  of  man  and  his  entire  devotion 
that  God's  glory  appears,  and  man's  glory  appears  in 
his  power  to  kindle  and  maintain  the  devotion  of 
woman.  Not  in  independence  of  God  does  man  find 
either  his  own  glory  or  God's,  and  not  in  independence 
of  man  does  woman  find  either  her  own  glory  or  man's. 
The  desire  of  woman  shall  be  to  her  husband ;  in  the 
honourable  devotedness  to  man  which  love  prompts, 
woman  fulfils  the  law  of  her  creation  ;  and  it  is  only 
the  imperfect  and  ignoble  woman  who  has  any  sense 
of  humiliation,  degradation,  or  limitation  of  her  sphere 
in  following  the  lead  of  love  for  the  individual.  It  is 
through  this  honourable  service  of  man  she  serves  God 
and  fulfils  the  purpose  of  her  existence.  The  woman 
who  is  most  womanly  will  most  readily  recognise  that 
her  function  is  to  be  the  glory  of  man,  to  mould,  and 
elevate,  and  sustain  the  individual,  to  find  her  joy  and 
her  life  in  the  private  Hfe,  in  which  the  affections  are 
developed,  principles  formed,  and  all  personal  wants 
provided  for.     And  man,  on  his  part,  must  say, 

"  If  aught  of  goodness  or  of  grace 
Be  mine,  hers  be  the  glory." 

For,  as  a  French  writer  says,  "her  influence  em- 
braces the  whole  of  life.  A  wife,  a  mother — two 
magical  words,  comprising  the  sweetest  sources  of  man's 
felicity  !  Theirs  is  the  reign  of  beauty,  of  love,  of 
reason,  always  a  reign.  A  man  takes  counsel  with 
his  wife  ;  he  obeys  his  mother  :  he  obeys  her  long  after 
she  has  ceased  to  live,  and  the  ideas  he  has  received 


xi.  i-i6.]  THE    VEIL.  253 

from  her  become  principles  even  stronger  than  his 
passions."  ^ 

The  position  assigned  to  woman  as  the  glory  of  man 
is  therefore  far  removed  from  the  view  which  cynically 
proclaims  her  man's  mere  convenience,  whose  function 
it  is  *'  to  fatten  household  sinners,"  "  to  suckle  fools 
and  chronicle  small  beer."  Paul's  view,  though  adopted 
and  exhibited  in  individual  instances,  is  far  as  yet  from 
commanding  universal  consent.  But  certainly  nothing 
so  distinguishes,  elevates,  purifies,  and  balances  a  man 
in  life  as  a  high  esteem  for  woman.  A  man  shows  his 
manliness  chiefly  by  a  true  reverence  for  all  women, 
by  a  clear  recognition  of  the  high  service  appointed 
to  them  by  God,  and  by  a  tender  sympathy  with  them 
in  all  the  various  endurance  their  nature  and  their 
position  demand. 

That  this  is  woman's  normal  sphere  is  indicated  even 
by  her  unalterable  physical  characteristics.  **  Doth 
not  even  nature  itself  teach  you,  that,  if  a  man  have 
long  hair,  it  is  a  shame  unto  him  ?  But  if  a  woman 
have  long  hair,  it  is  a  glory  to  her :  for  her  hair  is 
given  her  for  a  covering."  By  nature  woman  is 
endowed  with  a  symbol  of  modesty  and  retirement. 
The  veil,  which  signifies  her  devotement  to  home  duties, 
is  merely  the  artificial  continuation  of  her  natural  gift 
of  hair.  The  long  hair  of  the  Greek  fop  or  of  the 
English  cavalier  was  accepted  by  the  people  as  an 
indication  of  effeminate  and  luxurious  living.  Suitable 
for  women,  it  is  unsuitable  for  men ;  such  is  the 
instinctive  judgm.ent.  And  nature,  speaking  through 
this  visible  sign  of  the  woman's  hair,  tells  her  that  her 
place  is  in  private,  not  in  public,  in  the  home,  not  in 

'  See  Landels'  True  Glory  of  Woutan. 


254     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 


the  city  or  the  camp,  in  the  attitude  of  free  and  loving 
subordination,  not  in  the  seat  of  authority  and  rule. 
In  other  respects  also  the  physical  constitution  of 
woman  points  to  a  similar  conclusion.  Her  shorter 
stature  and  slighter  frame,  her  higher  pitch  of  voice, 
her  more  graceful  form  and  movement,  indicate  that 
she  is  intended  for  the  gentler  ministries  of  home  life 
rather  than  for  the  rough  work  of  the  world.  And 
similar  indications  are  found  in  her  mental  peculiarities. 
She  has  the  gifts  which  fit  her  for  influencing  indivi- 
duals ;  man  has  those  qualities  which  enable  him  to 
deal  with  things,  with  abstract  thought,  or  with  persons 
in  the  mass.  Quicker  in  perception  and  trusting  more 
to  her  intuitions,  woman  sees  at  a  glance  what  man 
is  sure  of  only  after  a  process  of  reasoning. 

These  arguments  and  conclusions  introduced  by 
Paul  of  course  apply  only  to  the  broad  and  normal 
distinction  between  man  and  woman.  He  does  not 
argue  that  women  are  inferior  to  men,  nor  that  they 
may  not  have  equal  spiritual  endowments ;  but  he 
maintains  that,  whatever  be  their  endowments,  there  is 
a  womanly  mode  of  exercising  them  and  a  sphere  for 
woman  which  she  ought  not  to  transgress.  Not  all 
women  are  of  the  distinctively  womanly  type.  A 
Britomarte  may  arm  herself  and  overthrow  the  strongest 
knights.  A  Joan  of  Arc  may  infuse  into  a  nation 
her  own  warlike  and  patriotic  ardour.  In  art,  in 
literature,  in  science,  feminine  names  may  occupy  some 
of  the  highest  places.  In  our  own  day  many  careers 
have  been  opened  to  women  from  which  they  had 
hitherto  been  debarred.  They  are  now  found  in  Govern- 
ment offices,  in  School  Boards,  in  the  medical  pro- 
fession. Again  and  again  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
attempts  have  been  made  to.  institute  a  female  order 


xi.  i-i6.]  THE    VEIL.  255 

in  the  ministry,  but  as  yet  both  the  clerical  and  the 
legal  professions  are  closed  to  women. -^  And  we  may 
reasonably  conclude  that  as  the  army  and  navy  will 
always  be  mianned  by  the  physically  stronger  sex,  so 
there  are  other  employments  in  which  women  would 
be  entirely  out  of  place. 

But  it  will  be  asked,  Why  was  Paul  so  exact  in 
describing  how  a  woman  should  comport  herself  while 
praying  or  prophesying  in  public,  when  he  meant  very 
shortly  in  this  same  Epistle  to  write,  "  Let  your  women 
keep  silence  in  the  Churches  :  for  it  is  not  permitted 
unto  them  to  speak ;  but  they  are  commanded  to  be 
under  obedience,  as  also  saith  the  Law.  And  if  they  will 
learn  anything,  let  them  ask  their  husbands  at  home :  for 
it  is  a  shame  for  women  to  speak  in  the  Church  "  ?  It 
has  been  suggested  that  although  it  was  the  standing 
order  that  women  should  not  speak,  there  might  be 
occasions  when  the  Spirit  urged  them  to  address  an 
assemblage  of  Christians  ;  and  the  regulation  here  given 
is  intended  for  these  exceptional  cases.  This  may  be 
so,  but  the  connection  in  which  the  absolute  prohibition 
is  .  given  rather  militates  against  this  view,  and  I 
think  it  more  likely  that  in  his  own  mind  Paul  held 
the  two  matters  quite  distinct  and  felt  that  a  mere 
prohibition  preventing  women  from  addressing  public 
meetings  would  not  touch  the  more  serious  transgres- 
sion of  female  modesty  involved  in  the  discarding  of  the 
veil.  He  could  not  pass  over  this  violent  assertion  of 
independence  without  separate  treatment;  and  while  he 
is  treating  it,  it  is  not  the  speaking  in  public  which 
is  before   his  mind,    but   the   unfeminine  assertion  of 

*  The  experience  of  the  Society  of  Friends  throws  light  on  this 
matter. 


256     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE  CORINTHIANS. 

independence  and  the  principle  underlying  this  mani- 
festation. 

Besides  the  direct  teaching  of  this  passage  on  the  posi- 
tion of  woman,  there  are  inferences  to  be  drawn  from  it 
of  some  importance.  First,  Paul  recognises  that  the  God 
of  nature  is  the  God  of  grace,  and  that  we  may  safely 
argue  from  the  one  sphere  to  the  other.  *'A11  things 
are  of  God."  It  is  profitable  to  be  recalled  to  the 
teaching  of  nature.  It  saves  us  from  becoming  fantastic 
in  our  beliefs,  from  cherishing  fallacious  expectations, 
from  false,  pharisaic,  extravagant  conduct. 

Again,  we  are  here  reminded  that  every  man  and 
woman  has  to  do  directly  with  God,  who  has  no 
respect  of  persons.  Each  soul  is  independent  of  all 
others  in  its  relation  to  God.  Each  soul  has  the 
capacity  of  direct  connection  with  God  and  of  thus  being 
raised  above  all  oppression,  not  only  of  his  fellows,  but 
of  all  outward  things.  It  is  here  man  finds  his  true 
glory.  His  soul  is  his  own  to  give  it  to  God.  He  is 
dependent  on  nothing  but  on  God  only.  Admitting  God 
into  his  spirit,  and  believing  in  the  love  and  rectitude 
of  God,  he  is  armed  against  all  the  ills  of  life,  however 
little  he  may  relish  them.  To  all  of  us  God  offers 
Himself  as  Friend,  Father,  Saviour,  Life.  No  man  need 
remain  in  his  sin  ;  none  need  be  content  with  a  poor 
eternity;  no  man  need  go  through  life  trembling  or 
defeated  :  for  God  declares  Himself  on  our  side,  and 
offers  His  love  to  all  without  respect  of  persons.  We 
are  all  on  the  same  footing  before  Him.  God  does  not 
admit  some  freely,  while  He  shrinks  from  the  touch 
of  others.  It  is  as  full  and  rich  an  inheritance  that 
He  puts  within  the  reach  of  the  poorest  and  most 
wretched  of  earth's  inhabitants  as  He  offers  to  him  on 
whom  the  eyes  of  men  rest  in  admiration  or  in  envy. 


1 6.]  THE    VEIL 


257 


To  disbelieve  or  repudiate  this  privilege  of  uniting  our- 
selves to  God  is  in  the  truest  sense  to  commit  spiritual 
suicide.  It  is  in  God  we  live  now  ;  He  is  with  us  and  in 
us  :  and  to  shut  Him.  out  from  that  inmost  consciousness 
to  which  none  else  is  admitted  is  to  cut  ourselves  off,  not 
only  from  the  deepest  joy  and  truest  support,  but  from 
all  in  which  we  can  find  spiritual  life. 

Lastly,  although  there  is  in  Christ  an  absolute 
levelling  of  distinctions,  no  one  being  more  acceptable 
to  God  or  nearer  to  Him  because  he  belongs  to  a 
certain  race,  or  rank,  or  class,  yet  these  distinctions 
remain  and  arc  valid  in  society.  A  woman  is  a  woman 
still  though  she  become  a  Christian  ;  a  subject  must 
honour  his  king  although  by  becoming  a  Christian  he 
is  himself  in  one  aspect  above  all  authority  ;  a  servant 
will  show  his  Christianity^  not  by  assuming  an  insolent 
familiarity  with  his  Christian  master,  but  by  treating 
him  with  respectful  fidelity.  The  Christian,  above  all 
men,  needs  sober-mindedness  to  hold  the  balance  level 
and  not  allow  his  Christian  rank  entirely  to  outweigh 
his  social  position.  It  forms  a  great  part  of  our  duty 
to  accept  our  own  place  without  envying  others  and  to 
do  honour  to  those  to  whom  honour  is  due. 


ABUSE  OF  THE  LORD'S  SUFFER, 


"Now  in  this  that  I  declare  unto  you  I  praise  you  not,  that  ye  come 
together  not  for  the  better,  but  for  the  worse.     For  first  of  all,  when 
ye  come  together  in  the  Church,  I  hear  that  there  be  divisions  among 
you;  and  I  partly  believe  it.     For  there  must  be  also  heresies  among 
you,  that  they  which  are  approved  may  be  made  manifest  among  you. 
When  ye  come  together  therefore  into  one  place,  this  is  not  to  eat  the 
Lord's  Supper.     For  in  ealing  every  one  taketh  before  other  his  own 
supper :  and  one  is  hungrj^,  and  another  is  drunken.     What  ?  have 
ye  not  houses  to  eat  and  to  drink  in  ?  or  despise  ye  the  Church  of 
God,   and   shame  them  that  have  not  ?     What  shall  I  say  to  you  ? 
shall  I  praise  you  in  this  ?     1  praise  30U  not.     For  I  have  received  of 
the  Lord  that  which  also  I  delivered  unto  you,  that  the  Lord  Jesus 
the  same  night  in  which  He  was  betrayed  took  bread  :  and  when  He 
had  given  thanks,  He  brake  it,  and  said,  Take,  eat :  this  is  My  body, 
which  is  broken  for  you  :  this  do  in  remembrance  of  Me.     After  the 
same  manner  also  He  took  the  cup,  when  He  had  supped,  saying. 
This  cup  is  the  new  testament  in  My  blocd  :  this  do  ye,  as  oft  as  ye 
drink  it,  in  remembrance  of  Me.     For  as  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread, 
and    drink  this  cup,   ye  do  show   the  Lord's   death    till  He   come. 
WHicrefore  whosoever  shall  eat  this  bread,  and  drink  this  cup  of  the 
Lord,  unworthily,  shall  be  guilty  of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Lord. 
But  let  a  man  examine  himself,  and  so  let  him  eat  of  that  bread,  and 
drink    of  that   cup.     For  he  that  eateth   and  drinketh  unworthily, 
eateth  and  drinketh  damnation  to  himself,  not  discerning  the  Lord's 
body.     For  this  cause  many  are  weak  and  dckly  among  you,   and 
many  sleep.     For  if  we  would  judge  ourselves,  we  should  not  be 
judged.     But  when  we  are  judged,  we  are  chastened  of  the  Lord, 
that  we  should  not  be  conden^ned  with  the  ^yorld.     Wherefore,  m}' 
brethren,  when  ye  come  together  to  eat,  tarry  one  for  another.     And 
if  any  man  hunger,  let  him  eat  at  home;  that  ye  come  not  together 
unto  condemnation.     And  the  rest  will  I  set  in  order  when  I  come." — 
I  Cor.  xi.  17-34. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

ABUSE    OF    THE    LORD'S   SUPPER. 

IN  this  paragraph  of  his  letter  Paul  speaks  of  an 
abuse  which  can  scarcely  be  credited,  still  less 
tolerated,  in  our  times.  The  most  sacred  of  all  Christian 
ordinances  had  been  allowed  to  degenerate  into  a 
bacchanalian  revel,  not  easily  to  be  distinguished  from 
a  Greek  drinking  party.  A  respectable  citizen  would 
hardly  have  permitted  at  his  own  table  the  licence  and 
excess  visible  at  the  Table  of  the  Lord.  How  such 
disorders  in  worship  should  have  arisen  calls  for 
explanation. 

It  was  common  in  Corinth  and  the  other  cities  of 
Greece  for  various  sections  of  the  community  to  form 
themselves  into  associations,  clubs,  or  guilds ;  and  it 
was  customary  for  such  societies  to  share  a  common 
meal  once  a  week,  or  once  a  month,  or  even  when  con- 
venient daily.  Some  of  these  associations  were  formed 
of  persons  very  variously  provided  with  this  world's 
goods,  and  one  of  the  objects  of  some  of  the  clubs  was 
to  make  provision  for  the  poorer  members  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  subject  them  to  none  of  the  shame  which 
is  apt  to  attend  the  acceptance  of  promiscuous  charity. 
All  members  had  an  equal  right  to  present  themselves 
at  the  table ;  and  the  property  held  by  the  society  was 
equally  distributed  to  all. 


262     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHiANS. 

This  custom,  not  unknown  in  Palestine  itself,  had 
been  spontaneously  adopted  by  the  primitive  Church 
of  Jerusalem.  The  Christians  of  those  early  days  felt 
themselves  to  be  more  closely  related  than  the  members 
of  any  trade  guild  or  political  club.  If  it  was  con- 
venient and  suitable  that  persons  of  similar  political 
opinions  or  belonging  to  the  same  trade  should  to  some 
extent  have  common  property  and  should  exhibit  their 
community  by  sharing  a  common  meal,  it  was  certainly 
suitable  among  Christians.  Speedily  it  became  a  pre- 
valent custom  for  Christians  to  eat  together.  These 
meals  were  called  agapce — ^love-feasts — and  became  a 
marked  feature  of  the  early  Church.  On  a  fixed  day, 
generally  the  first  day  of  the  week,  the  Christians 
assembled,  each  bringing  what  he  could  as  a  contribu- 
tion to  the  feast :  fish,  poultry,  joints  of  meat,  cheese, 
milk,  honey,  fruit,  wine,  and  bread.  In  some  places 
the  proceedings  began  by  partaking  of  the  consecrated 
bread  and  wine ;  but  in  other  places  physical  appetite 
was  first  appeased  by  partaking  of  the  meal  provided, 
and  after  that  the  bread  and  wine  were  handed  round. 

This  mode  of  celebrating  the  Lord's  Supper  was 
recommended  by  its  close  resemblance  to  its  original 
celebration  by  the  Lord  and  His  disciples.  It  was  at 
the  close  of  the  Paschal  Supper,  which  was  meant  to 
satisfy  hunger  as  well  as  to  commemorate  the  Exodus, 
that  our  Lord  took  bread  and  brake  it.  He  sat  with 
His  disciples  as  one  family,  and  the  meal  they  partook 
of  was  social  as  well  as  religious.  But  when  the  first 
solemnity  passed  away,  and  Christ's  presence  was  no 
longer  felt  at  the  common  table,  the  Christian  love- 
feast  was  liable  to  many  corruptions.  The  wealthy 
took  the  best  seats,  kept  hold  of  their  own  delicacies, 
and,  without  waiting  for  any  common  distribution,  each 


xi.  I7-34-]       ABUSE   OF  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER,  263 

looked  after  himself,  and  went  on  with  his  own  supper, 
regardless  of  the  fact  that  others  at  the  table  had 
none.  ''  Every  one  taketh  before  other  his  own 
supper,"  so  that,  while  one  is  hungry  and  has  received 
nothing,  another  at  this  so-called  common  love-feast 
has  already  taken  too  much  and  is  intoxicated.  Those 
who  had  no  need  to  use  the  common  stock,  but  had 
houses  of  their  own  to  eat  and  to  drink  in,  yet,  for  the 
sake  of  appearances,  brought  their  contribution  to  the 
meal,  but  consumed  it  themselves.  The  consequence 
was  that  from  being  truly  love-feasts,  exhibiting  Chris- 
tian charity  and  Christian  temperance,  these  meetings 
became  scandalous  as  scenes  of  greedy  selfishness, 
and  profane  conduct,  and  besotted  excess.  *'  What 
shall  I  say  to  you?  shall  I  praise  3^ou  in  this?  I 
praise  you  not."  In  this  Paul  anticipates  the  condem- 
nation of  the£e  occasions  of  revelry  and  discord  which 
the  Church  was  obliged  to  pronounce  after  no  great 
lapse  of  time.^ 

Thus  then  arose  these  disorders  in  the  celebration 
of  the  Lord's  Supper.  By  the  conjunction  of  this  rite 
with  the  social  meal  of  the  Christians  it  degenerated 
into  an  occasion  of  much  that  was  unseemly  and 
scandalous.  To  the  reform  of  this  abuse  Paul  now 
addresses  himself;  and  it  is  worth  our  while  to  observe 
what  remedies  he  does  not  propose  as  well  as  those 
he  recommends. 

First,  He  does  not  propose  to  disjoin  absolutely  and 
in  all  cases  the  religious  rite  from  the  ordinary  meal. 
In  the  case  of  the  richer  members  of  the  Church  this 
disjunction  is  enjoined.  They  are  directed  to  take 
their  meals  at    home.     "  Have  ye  not    houses    to    eat 

'  For  a  highly  coloured  description  of  the  love-feasts  see  Kenan's 
St.  Paul,  pp.  261-270. 


264     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

and  to  drink  in  ?  or  despise  ye  the  Church  of  God,  and 
shame  them  that  have  not  ?  .  .  .  If  any  man  hunger, 
let  him  eat  at  home."  But  with  the  destitute  or  those 
who  had  no  well-provided  homes  another  rule  must 
be  adopted.  It  would  shame  the  Christian  community, 
and  quite  undo  its  quickly  won  reputation  for  brotherly 
love  and  charity,  were  its  members  observed  begging 
their  daily  bread  on  the  streets.  It  was  equally  un- 
seemly for  the  rich  to  accept  and  for  the  poor  to  be 
denied  the  meal  furnished  at  the  expense  of  the  Church. 
And  therefore  Paul's  recommendation  is  that  those 
who  can  conveniently  eat  at  home  should  do  so.  But 
as  no  quality  of  the  Christian  Church  is  more  strictly 
her  own  than  charity  and  no  duty  more  incumbent  or 
more  lovely  than  to  feed  the  hungry,  it  could  not  dis- 
honour the  Church  to  spread  in  it  a  meal  for  whosoever 
should  be  in  need  of  it. 

Again,  although  the  wine  of  Holy  Communion  had 
been  so  sadly  abused,  Paul  does  not  prohibit  its  use 
in  the  ordinance.  His  moderation  and  wisdom  have 
not  in  this  respect  been  universally  followed.  On  in- 
finitely less  occasion  alterations  have  been  introduced 
into  the  administration  of  the  ordinance  with  a  view  to 
preventing  its  abuse  by  reclaimed  drunkards,  and  on 
still  slighter  pretext  a  more  sweeping  alteration  was 
introduced  many  centuries  ago  by  the  Church  of  Rome. 
In  that  Church  the  custom  still  prevails  of  receiving 
communion  only  under  one  kind ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
communicant  partakes  of  the  bread,  but  not  of  the  wine. 
The  reason  for  this  is  given  by  one  of  their  most 
authoritative  writers  as  follows  :  "It  is  well  known  that 
this  custom  was  not  first  established  by  any  ecclesias- 
tical law ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  in  consequence 
qI  the  general  prevalence  of  the  usage   that  this  law 


xi.  17-34.]       ABUSE   OF  THE  LORD'S  SUFFER.  265 

was  passed  in  approval  of  it.  It  is  a  matter  of  no  less 
notoriety  that  the  monasteries  in  whose  centre  this 
observance  had  its  rise,  and  thence  spread  in  ever  wider 
circles,  were  led  by  a  very  nice  sense  of  delicacy  to 
impose  on  themselves  this  privation.  A  pious  dread  of 
desecrating,  by  spilling  and  the  like,  even  in  the  most 
conscientious  ministration,  the  form  of  the  subKmest 
and  the  holiest  whereof  the  participation  can  be  vouch- 
safed to  man,  was  the  feehng  which  swayed  their 
minds.  .  .  .  However,  we  should  rejoice  if  it  were  left 
free  to  each  one  to  drink  or  not  out  of  the  consecrated 
chalice  ;  and  this  permission  would  be  granted  if  with 
the  same  love  and  concord  a  universal  desire  were 
expressed  for  the  use  of  the  cup  as  from  the  twelfth 
century  the  contrary  wish  has  been  enounced."  ^  One 
cannot  but  regret  that  this  reverence  for  the  ordinance 
did  not  take  the  form  of  a  humble  acceptance  of  it,  in 
accordance  with  its  original  institution  ;  and  one  cannot 
but  think  that  the  "pious  dread  of  desecrating "  the 
ordinance  would  have  sufficiently  prevented  any  spilling 
of  the  wine  or  other  abuse,  or  have  sufficiently  atoned 
for  any  little  accident  which  might  occur.  And  cer- 
tainly, in  contrast  to  all  such  contrivances,  the  sanity 
of  Paul's  judgment  comes  out  in  strong  relief;  and  we 
more  clearly  recognise  the  sagacity  which  directed  that 
the  ordinance  should  not  be  tampered  with  to  suit  the 
avoidable  weaknesses  of  men,  but  that  men  should 
learn  to  live  up  to  the  requirements  of  the  ordinance. 

Again,  Paul  does  not  insist  that  because  frequent 
communion  had  been  abused  this  must  give  place  to 
monthly  or  yearly  communion.  In  after-times,  partly 
from  the   abuses   attending   frequent   communion  and 

*  MOhler's  Symbolism,  i.,  351. 


266     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

paitly  from  the  condition  of  the  cities  into  which 
Christianity  found  its  way,  a  change  to  rarer  celebration 
was  found  advisable;  and,  for  reasons  that  need  not 
here  be  detailed,  the  Church  catholic,  both  in  the  East 
and  in  the  West,  settled  down  to  the  custom  of  cele- 
brating the  Lord's  Supper  weekly  :  and  for  some 
centuries  it  was  expected  that  all  members  of  the 
Church  should  partake  weekly.  Paul's  reluctance  to 
lay  down  any  law  on  the  subject  suggests  that  the 
abuse  of  this  or  any  other  ordinance  does  not  arise 
simply  from  the  frequency  of  its  administration.  It  is 
quite  natural  to  suppose  that  the  inevitable  result  of 
frequent  communion  is  an  undue  familiarity  with  holy 
things  and  a  profane  carelessness  in  handling  what 
should  only  be  approached  with  the  deepest  reverence. 
That  familiarity  breeds  contempt,  or  at  any  rate  heed- 
lessness, is  certainly  a  rule  that  ordinarily  holds  good. 
As  Nelson  said  of  his  sailors,  hardened  by  familiarity 
with  danger,  they  cared  no  more  for  round-shot  than 
for  peas.  The  medical  student  who  faints  or  sickens 
at  his  first  visit  to  the  operating  theatre  soon  looks 
with  unblenching  face  on  wounds  and  blood.  And  by 
the  same  law  it  is  feared,  and  not  without  reason,  that 
if  we  observed  frequent  communion,  we  should  cease 
to  cherish  that  proper  awe,  and  cease  to  feel  that  flutter 
of  hesitation,  and  cease  to  be  subdued  by  that  sacred- 
ness  of  the  ordinance  which  yet  are  the  very  feelings 
through  which  in  great  measure  the  rite  influences  us 
for  good.  We  think  it  would  be  impossible  to  pass 
every  week  through  those  trying  moments  in  which 
the  soul  trembles  before  God's  majesty  and  love  as 
exhibited  in  the  Lord's  Supper  ;  and  we  fear  that  the 
heart  would  instinctively  shrink  from  the  reality,  and 
protect  itself  against  the  emotion,  and  find  a  way  of 


xi.i7-34-]       ABUSE   OF  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  267 

observing  the  ordinance  with  ease  to  itself,  and  that 
thus  the  life  would  die  out  from  the  celebration,  and  the 
mere  husk  or  form  be  left. 

It  is,  however,  obvious  that  these  fears  need  not  be 
verified,  and  that  an  effort  on  our  part  would  prevent 
the  consequences  dreaded.  Our  method  of  procedure 
in  all  such  cases  is  first  to  find  out  what  it  is  right 
to  do,  and  then,  though  it  cost  us  an  effort,  to  do  it. 
If  our  reverence  for  the  ordinance  in  question  depends 
on  its  rare  celebration,  every  one  must  see  that  such 
reverence  is  very  precarious.  May  it  not  be  a  merely 
superstitious  or  sentimental  reverence  ?  Is  it  not 
produced  by  some  false  idea  of  the  rite  and  its  signi- 
fication, or  does  it  not  spring  from  the  solemnity  of 
the  paraphernalia  and  human  surroundings  of  it  ?  Paul 
seeks  to  restore  reverence  in  the  Corinthians  not  by 
prohibiting  frequent  communion,  but  by  setting  more 
clearly  before  them  the  solemn  facts  which  underlie 
the  rite.  In  presence  of  these  facts  every  worthy 
communicant  is  at  all  times  living  ;  and  if  it  be  merely 
the  outward  equipment  and  presentation  of  these  facts 
which  solemnize  us  and  quicken  our  reverence,  then 
this  itself  is  rather  an  argument  for  a  more  frequent 
celebration  of  the  rite,  that  so  this  false  reverence  at 
least  might  be  dissipated. 

The  instincts  of  men  are,  however,  in  many  cases  a 
safer  guide  than  their  judgments  ;  and  there  is  a  feeling 
prevalent  that  very  frequent  communion  is  not  advisable, 
and  that  if  it  be  advisable  it  should  be  reached  not  at 
a  bound,  but  step  by  step.  The  main  point  on  which 
the  individual  should  insist  on  coming  to  some  clear 
understanding  with  himself  is  whether  his  own  reluc- 
tance to  frequent  communion  does  not  arise  from  his 
fear  of  the  ordinance  being  too  profitable  rather  than 


268     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

from  any  fear  of  its  ceasing  to  profit.  Does  not  our 
shrinking  from  it  often  mean  that  we  shrink  from  being 
more  distinctly  confronted  with  the  love  and  holiness 
of  Christ  and  with  His  purpose  in  dying  for  us  ?  Does 
it  not  mean  that  we  are  not  quite  reconciled  to  be 
always  living  on  the  holiest  motives,  always  under 
the  most  subduing  and  purifying  influences,  always 
living  as  the  children  of  God,  whose  citizenship  is  in 
heaven  ?  Do  we  shrink  from  the  additional  restraint 
and  the  fresh  and  effectual  summons  to  a  life,  not 
higher  and  purer  than  we  ought  to  be  living — for  there 
is  no  such  life — but  higher  and  purer  than  we  are  quite 
prepared  to  live  ?  Putting  to  ourselves  these  questions, 
we  use  this  rite  as  the  thermomeler,  which  shows  us 
whether  we  are  cold,  lukewarm,  or  hot,  or  as  the 
lead  heaved  from  time  to  time,  which  shows  us  the 
depth  of  water  we  have  and  the  kind  of  bottom  over 
which  we  are  holding  our  course. 

The  two  most  instructive  writers  on  the  sacraments 
are  Calvin  and  Waterland.  The  latter,  in  his  very 
elaborate  treatment  of  the  Eucharist,  offers  some 
remarks  upon  the  point  before  us.  "There  can,"  he 
says,  ^'  be  no  just  bar  to  frequency  of  communion  but 
the  want  of  preparation,  which  is  only  such  a  bar  as 
men  may  then.selves  remove  if  they  please;  and  there- 
fore it  concerns  them  highly  to  take  oft'  the  impediment 
as  soon  as  possible,  and  not  to  trust  to  vain  hopes  of 
alleviating  one  fault  by  another.  .  .  .  The  danger  of 
misperfoiming  any  religious  duty  is  an  argument  for 
fear  and  caution,  but  no  excuse  for  neglect ;  God  insists 
upon  the  doing  it,  and  the  doing  it  well  also.  ...  It 
was  no  sufficient  plea  for  the  slothful  servant  under 
the  Gospel  that  he  thought  his  master  hard  to  please, 
and  thereupon  neglected   his    bounden    duty,    for  the 


xi.  17-34.]       ABUSE   OF  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER,  269 

use  he  ought  to  have  made  of  that  thought  was  to 
have  been  so  much  the  more  wakeful  and  diligent  in 
his  master's  service.  Therefore  in  the  case  of  the 
Holy  Communion  it  is  to  very  little  purpose  to  plead 
the  strictness  of  the  self-examination  or  preparation 
by  way  of  excuse  either  for  a  total,  or  for  a  frequent, 
or  for  a  long  neglect  of  it.  A  man  may  say  that  he 
comes  not  to  the  Table  because  he  is  not  prepared,  and 
so  far  he  assigns  a  good  reason  ;  but  if  he  should  be 
further  asked  why  he  is  not  prepared  when  he  may, 
then  he  can  only  make  some  trifling,  insufficient  excuse 
or  remain  speechless."^ 

The  positive  counsel  Paul  gives  regarding  suitable 
preparation  for  participation  in  this  Sacrament  is  very 
simple.  He  offers  no  elaborate  scheme  of  self-examina- 
tion which  might  fill  the  mind  with  scruples  and  induce 
introspective  habits  and  spiritual  hypochondria.  He 
would  have  every  man  answer  the  plain  question.  Do 
you  discern  the  Lord's  body  in  the  Sacrament  ?  This 
is  the  one  cardinal  point  on  which  all  revolves,  admit- 
ting or  excluding  each  applicant.  He  who  clearly 
understands  that  this  is  no  common  meal,  but  the 
outward  symbol  by  means  of  which  God  offers  to  us 
Jesus  Christ,  is  not  likely  to  desecrate  the  Sacrament. 
"  This  is  My  body,"  says  the  Lord,  meaning  that  this 
bread  will  ever  remind  the  communicant  that  his  Lord 
freely  gave  His  own  body  for  the  life  of  the  world. 
And  whoever  accepts  the  bread  and  the  wine  because 
they  remind  him  of  this  and  bring  him  into  a  renewed 
attitude  of  faith  is  a  worthy  communicant.  The 
Corinthians  were  chastened  by  sickness  and  apparently 
by  death  that  they  might  see  and  repent  of  the  enormity 


Waterland,  IVorks,  iv.,  p.  781, 


270     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   HIE   CORINTHIANS. 

of  using  these  symbols  as  common  food  ;  and  in  order 
that  they  might  escape  this  chastening,  they  had  but 
to  recall  the  institution  of  the  Sacrament  by  our  Lord 
Himself. 

The  brief  narrative  of  this  first  institution  which 
Paul  here  inserts  gives  prominence  to  the  truth  that 
the  Sacrament  was  intended  primarily  as  a  memorial 
or  remembrance  of  the  Saviour.  Nothing  could  be 
simpler  or  more  human  than  our  Lord's  appointment 
of  this  Sacrament.  Lifting  the  material  of  the  Supper 
before  Him,  He  bids  His  disciples  make  the  simple  act 
of  eating  and  drinking  the  occasion  of  remembering 
Him.  As  the  friend  who  is  setting  out  on  a  long 
absence  or  is  passing  for  ever  from  earth  puts  into 
our  hands  his  portrait  or  something  he  has  used,  or 
worn,  or  prized,  and  is  pleased  to  think  that  we  shall 
treasure  it  for  his  sake,  so  did  Christ  on  the  eve  of  His 
death  secure  this  one  thing :  that  His  disciples  should 
have  a  memento  by  which  to  remember  Him.  And 
as  the  dying  gift  of  a  friend  becomes  sacred  to  us  as 
his  own  person,  and  we  cannot  bear  to  see  it  handed 
about  by  unsympathetic  hands  and  remarked  upon 
by  those  who  have  not  the  same  loving  reverence  as 
ourselves,  and  as  when  we  gaze  at  his  portrait,  or 
when  we  use  the  very  pen  or  pencil  worn  smooth  by 
his  fingers,  we  recall  the  many  happy  times  we  spent 
logether  and  the  bright  and  inspiring  words  that  fell 
from  his  lips,  so  does  this  Sacrament  seem  sacred  to 
us  as  Christ's  own  person,  and  by  means  of  it  grateful 
memories  of  all  He  was  and  did  throng  into  the  mind. 

Again,  the  form  of  this  memorial  is  fitted  to  recall 
the  actual  life  and  death  of  the  Lord.  It  is  His  body 
and  blood  we  are  invited  by  the  symbols  to  remember. 
By  them  we  are  brought  into  the  presence  of  an  actual 


xi.  I7-34-]       ABUSE   OF  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  271 

living  Person.  Our  religion  is  not  a  theory ;  it  is  not 
a  speculation,  a  system  of  philosophy  putting  us  in 
possession  of  a  true  scheme  of  the  universe  and  guiding 
us  to  a  sound  code  of  morals ;  it  is,  above  all,  a  per- 
sonal matter.  We  are  saved  by  being  brought  into 
right  personal  relations.  And  in  this  Sacrament  we 
are  reminded  of  this  and  are  helped  to  recognise  Christ 
as  an  actual  living  Person,  who  by  His  body  and  blood, 
by  His  actual  humanity,  saved  us.  The  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  remind  us  that  His  humanity  was  as 
substantial  as  our  own,  and  His  life  as  real.  He 
redeemed  us  by  the  actual  human  life  He  led  and  by 
the  death  He  died,  by  His  use  of  the  body  and  soul 
we  make  other  uses  of.  And  we  are  saved  by  remem- 
bering Him  and  by  assimilating  the  spirit  of  His  life 
and  death. 

But  especially,  when  Christ  said,  "  Do  this  in  re- 
membrance of  Me,"  did  He  mean  that  His  people  to 
all  time  should  remember  that  He  had  given  Himself 
wholly  to  them  and  for  them.  The  symbols  of  His 
body  and  blood  were  intended  to  keep  us  in  mind  that 
all  that  gave  Him  a  place  among  men  He  devoted  to 
us.  By  giving  His  flesh  and  blood  He  means  that  He 
gives  us  His  all,  Himself  wholly  ;  and  by  inviting  us 
to  partake  of  His  flesh  and  blood  He  means  that  we 
must  receive  Him  into  the  most  real  connection  possible, 
must  admit  His  self-sacrificing  love  into  our  heart  as 
our  most  cherished  possession.  He  bade  His  disciples 
remember  Him,  knowing  that  the  death  He  was  about 
to  die  would  ''draw  all  men  unto  Him,"  would  fill  the 
despairing  with  hopes  of  purity  and  happiness,  would 
cause  countless  sinners  to  say  to  themselves  with  soul- 
subduing  rapture,  "  He  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself 
for  me."     He  knew  that  the  love  shown  in  His  death 


272     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

and  the  hopes  it  creates  would  be  prized  as  the  world's 
redemption,  and  that  to  all  time  men  would  be  found 
turning  to  Him  and  saying,  "  If  I  forget  Thee,  let  my 
right  hand  forget  her  cunning ;  if  I  do  not  remember 
Thee,  let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth, 
if  I  do  not  prefer  Thee  above  my  chief  joy."  And 
therefore  He  presents  Himself  to  us  as  He  died  :  as  One 
whose  love  for  us  actually  brought  Him  to  the  deepest 
abasement  and  sorest  sufftring,  and  whose  death  opens 
for  us  a  way  to  the  Father. 

But  these  symbols  were  appointed  to  be  for  a 
remembrance  of  Christ  in  order  that,  remembering 
Him,  we  might  renew  our  fellowship  with  Him.  In 
the  Sacrament  there  is  not  a  mere  representation  of 
Christ  or  a  bare  commemoration  of  events  in  which  we 
are  interested ;  but  there  is  also  an  actual,  present 
communion  between  Christ  and  the  soul.  Encouraged 
and  stimulated  by  the  outward  signs,  we,  in  our  own 
soul  and  for  ourselves,  accept  Christ  and  the  blessings 
He  brings.  There  is  in  the  bread  and  wine  themselves 
nothing  that  can  profit  us,  but  we  are  by  their  means 
to  "discern  the  Lord's  body."  When  Christ  is  said 
to  be  present  in  the  bread  and  the  wine,  nothing 
mysterious  or  magical  is  meant.  It  is  meant  that  He 
is  spiritually  present  to  those  who  believe.  He  is 
present  in  the  Sacrament  as  He  is  present  to  faith 
at  any  time  and  in  any  place ;  only,  these  signs  which 
God  puts  into  our  hands  to  assure  us  of  His  gift  of 
Christ  to  us  help  us  to  believe  that  Christ  is  given, 
and  make  it  easier  for  us  to  rest  in  Him. 


CONCERNING  SPIRITUAL   GIFTS. 


"Now  concerning  spiritual  gifts,  brethren,  I  would  not  have  you 
ignorant.  Ye  know  that  ye  were  Gentiles,  carried  away  unto  these 
dumb  idols,  even  as  ye  were  led.  Wherefore  I  give  you  to  under- 
stand, that  no  man  speaking  by  the  Spirit  of  God  calleth  Jesus 
accursed  :  and  that  no  man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  the  Lord,  but  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Now  there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  Spirit. 
And  there  are  differences  of  administrations,  but  the  same  Lord.  And 
there  are  diversities  of  operations,  but  it  is  the  same  God  which 
worketh  all  in  all.  But  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  is  given  to 
every  man  to  profit  withal.  For  to  one  is  given  by  the  Spirit  the 
word  of  wisdom  ;  to  another  the  word  of  knowledge  by  the  same 
Spirit;  to  another  faith  by  the  same  Spirit;  to  another  the  gifts  of 
healing  by  the  same  Spirit;  to  another  the  working  of  miracles;  to 
another  prophecy  ;  to  another  discerning  of  spirits  ;  to  another  divers 
kinds  of  tongues  ;  to  another  the  interpretation  of  tongues  :  but  all 
these  worketh  that  one  and  the  selfsame  Spirit,  dividing  to  every  man 
severally  as  He  will.  For  as  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many 
members,  and  all  the  members  of  that  one  body,  being  many,  are  one 
body:  so  also  is  Christ.  For  by  one  Spirit  are  we  all  baptized  into 
one  body,  whether  we  be  Jews  or  Gentiles,  whether  Wc  be  bond  or  free ; 
and  have  been  all  made  to  drink  into  one  Spirit.  For  the  body  is  not 
one  member,  but  many.  If  the  foot  shall  say.  Because  I  am  not  the 
hand,  I  am  not  of  the  body ;  is  it  therefore  not  of  the  body  ?  And  if 
the  ear  shall  say,  Because  I  am  not  the  eye,  I  am  not  of  the  body  ;  is 
it  therefore  not  of  the  body  ?  If  the  whole  body  were  an  eye,  where 
were  the  hearing  ?  If  the  whole  were  hearing,  where  were  the 
smelling  ?  But  now  hath  God  set  the  members  every  one  of  them  in 
the  body,  as  it  hath  pleased  Him.  And  if  they  were  all  one  member, 
where  were  the  body?  But  now  are  they  many  members,  yet  but 
one  body.  And  the  eye  cannot  say  unto  the  hand,  I  have  no  need 
of  thee  :  nor  again  the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have  no  need  of  you.  Nay, 
much  more  those  members  of  the  body,  which  seem  to  be  more  feeble, 
are  necessary  :  and  those  members  of  the  body,  which  we  think  to 
be  less  honourable,  upon  these  we  bestow  more  abundant  honour; 
and  our  uncomely  parts  have  more  abundant  comeliness.  For  our 
comely  parts  have  no  need  :  but  God  hath  tempered  the  body  together, 
having  given  more  abundant  honour  to  that  part  which  lacked  :  that 
ihere  should  be  no  schism  in  the  body;  but  that  the  members  shouM 


have  the  same  care  one  for  another.  And  whether  one  member  suffer, 
all  the  members  suffer  with  it ;  or  one  member  be  honoured,  all  the 
members  rejoice  with  it.  Now  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ,  and 
members  in  particular.  And  God  hath  set  some  in  the  Church,  first 
apostles,  secondarily  prophets,  thirdly  teachers,  after  that  miracles, 
then  gifts  of  healings,  helps,  governments,  diversities  of  tongues.  Are 
all  apostles  ?  are  all  prophets  ?  are  all  teachers  ?  are  all  workers  of 
miracles  ?  Have  all  the  gifts  of  healing  ?  do  all  speak  with  tongues  ? 
do  all  interpret  ?  "—1  Cor.  xii.  I-3a 


CHAPTER   XVI I L 

CONCERNING  SPIRITUAL   GIFTS, 

THIS  Epistle  is  well  fitted  to  disabuse  our  minds 
of  the  idea  that  the  primitive  Church  was  in  all 
respects  superior  to  the  Church  of  our  own  day.  We 
turn  page  after  page,  and  find  little  but  contention, 
jealousies,  errors,  immorality,  fantastic  ideas,  immo- 
desty, irreverence,  profanity.  At  this  point  in  the 
Epistle  we  do  come  upon  a  state  of  things  which  diffe- 
rentiates the  primitive  Church  from  our  own ;  but  here 
too  the  superior  advantages  of  those  early  Christians 
were  sadly  abused  by  ignorance  and  envy.  The 
members  of  the  Corinthian  Church  were  possessed  of 
"  spiritual  gifts."  They  were  endowed  at  their  conver- 
sion or  at  baptism  with  certain  powers  which  they  had 
not  previously  possessed,  and  which  were  due  to  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  would  have  been  sur- 
prising had  so  entire  a  revolution  in  human  feelings  and 
prospects  as  Christianity  introduced  not  been  accom- 
panied by  some  extraordinary  and  abnormal  manifesta- 
tion. The  new  Divine  life  which  was  suddenly  poured 
into  human  nature  stirred  it  to  unusual  power.  Men 
and  women  who  yesterday  could  only  sit  and  condole 
with  their  sick  friends  found  themselves  to-day  in  so 
elevated  a  state  of  mind  that  they  could  impart  to  the 
sick  vital  energy.  Young  men  who  had  been  brought 
up  in  idolatry  and  ignorance  suddenly  found  their  minds 


278     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

filled  with  new  and  stimulating  ideas  which  they  felt 
impelled  to  impart  to  those  who  would  listen.  These 
and  the  like  extraordinary  gifts,  which  were  very  helpful 
in  calling  attention  to  the  young  Christian  community, 
speedily  passed  away  when  the  Christian  Church  took 
its  place  as  an  established  institution. 

If  we  are  disposed  to  question  the  genuineness  of  those 
manifestations  because  in  our  own  day  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  does  not  produce  them,  there  are  two  considera- 
tions which  should  weigh  with  us.  First,  that  which 
Browning  urges  :  that  miracles  which  were  once  needed 
are  now  no  longer  required,  because  they  served  the 
purpose  for  which  they  were  given.  As  when  you  sow 
a  plot  in  a  garden  you  stick  twigs  round  it,  that  no  care- 
less person  may  tread  down  and  destroy  the  young  and 
yet  unseen  plant,  but  when  the  plants  have  themselves 
become  as  tall  and  visible  as  the  twigs,  then  these  are 
useless,  so  if  the  miracles  actually  served  to  help  the 
young  Church's  growth,  she  by  their  means  has  now 
become  sufficiently  visible  and  sufficiently  understood 
to  need  them  no  more.^ 

And,  secondly,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  the  first 
impact  of  these  new  Christian  forces  on  the  spirit  of 

*  "  You  stick  a  garden-plot  with  ordered  twigs 
To  show  inside  lie  germs  of  herbs  unborn, 
And  check  the  careless  step  would  spoil  their  birth; 
But  when  herbs  wave,  the  guardian  twigs  may  go, 
Since  should  ye  doubt  of  virtues,  question  kinds. 
It  is  no  longer  for  old  twigs  ye  look. 
Which  proved  once  underneath  lay  j  tore  of  seed, 
But  to  the  heib's  ^elf,  by  what  light  ye  boast, 
For  what  fruit's  signs  are.     This  book's  fruit  is  plain, 
Nor  miracles  need  prove  it  any  more. 
Doth  the  fruit  show?     Then  miracles  bade  'ware 
At  first  of  root  and  stem,  saved  both  till  now 
From  trampling  ox,  rorgh  boar,  and  wanton  goat." 


xii.  1-30.]         CONCERNING  SPIRITUAL    GIFTS.  279 

man  should  produce  disturbance  and  violent  emotions, 
such  as  could  not  be  expected  to  continue  as  the  normal 
condition  of  things.  New  political  or  social  ideas 
suddenly  possessing  a  people,  as  at  the  French  Revo- 
lution, carry  them  to  many  actions  and  inspire  them 
with  an  energy  which  cannot  be  normal.  And  gentle 
and  without  observation  as  were  the  Spirit  and  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  yet  it  was  impossible  but  that,  under 
the  pressure  of  the  most  influential  and  inspiring  ideas 
which  ever  possessed  our  race,  there  should  be  some 
extraordinary  manifestations. 

Nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  that  these  gifts 
should  be  overrated  and  should  almost  be  considered 
as  the  most  substantial  and  advantageous  blessings 
Christianity  had  to  offer.  First  being  accepted  as 
evidence  of  the  real  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they 
came  to  be  prized  for  their  own  sake.  Originally 
designed  as  signs  of  the  reality  of  the  communication 
between  the  risen  Lord  and  His  Church,  and  therefore 
as  assurances  that  the  holiness  and  blessedness  pro- 
mised by  Christ  were  not  unattainable,  they  came  to  be 
regarded  as  themselves  more  precious  than  the  holiness 
they  promised.  Given  to  this  individual  and  to  that  in 
order  that  each  might  have  some  gift  by  which  he 
could  profit  the  community,  they  came  to  be  looked 
upon  as  distinctions  of  which  the  individual  was  proud, 
and  therefore  introduced  vanity,  envy,  and  separation, 
instead  of  mutual  esteem  and  helpfulness.  One  gift 
was  measured  with  another  and  rated  above  or  below 
it ;  and,  as  usual,  what  was  useful  could  not  compete 
with  what  was  surprising.  The  gift  of  speaking  for 
the  spiritual  profit  of  the  hearers  was  little  thought  of 
in  comparison  with  the  gift  of  speaking  in  unknown 
tongues.      Throughout   this    and    the    two    following 


28o     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 


chapters  Paul  explains  the  object  of  these  gifts  and  the 
principle  of  their  distribution  and  employment ;  he 
enounces  the  supremacy  of  love,  and  lays  down  cer- 
tain rules  for  the  guidance  of  meetings  in  which  these 
gifts  were  displayed. 

Paul  introduces  his  remarks  by  reminding  them  that 
their  previous  history  sufficiently  explained  their  need 
of  instruction.  ^*  In  your  former  heathen  state  you  had 
no  experience  whatever  similar  to  that  which  you  now 
have  in  the  Church.  The  dumb  idols  to  the  worship 
of  which  you  let  yourselves  be  carried  did  not  com- 
municate powers  similar  to  those  which  the  Spirit 
now  communicates  to  you.  Consequently,  novices  as 
you  are  in  this  domain,  you  need  a  guiding  thread  to 
prevent  you  from  going  astray.  This  is  why  I  instruct 
you."  ^  And  the  first  thing  you  need  to  guide  you  is  a 
criterion  by  which  you  can  judge  whether  so-called 
manifestations  of  the  Spirit  are  genuine  or  spurious. 
The  test  is  a  simple  'one.  Every  one  whose  words  or 
actions  disparage  Jesus  proclaims  himself  to  be  under 
some  other  influence  than  that  of  the  Spirit ;  every  one 
who  owns  Jesus  as  Lord,  serving  Him  and  promoting 
His  cause,  is  animated  by  the  Spirit. 

*'  No  man  speaking  by  the  Spirit  of  God  calleth  Jesus 
accursed."  But  was  there  any  possibility  of  such  an 
utterance  being  heard  in  a  Christian  Church  ?  It 
seems  there  was.  It  seems  that  very  early  in  the 
history  of  Christianity  men  were  found  in  the  Church 
who  could  not  reconcile  themselves  to  the  accursed 
death  of  Christ.  They  believed  in  the  Gospel  He 
proclaimed,  the  miracles  He  wrought,  the  kingdom  He 
founded  ;  but  the  Crucifixion  was  still  a  stumbHng-block 

»  Godet. 


xii.  1-30.]         CONCERNING  SPIRITUAL    GIFTS.  281 

to  them.  And  so  they  framed  a  theory  to  suit  their 
own  prejudices,  and  held  that  the  Divine  Logos  descended 
upon  Jesus  at  His  baptism  and  spoke  and  acted  through 
Him,  but  abandoned  Him  before  the  Crucifixion.  It 
was  Jesus,  a  mere  man,  who  died  on  the  Cross  the 
accursed  death.  This  degradation  of  Jesus  was  not  to 
be  tolerated  in  the  Christian  Church,  and  was  decisive 
as  to  a  man's  possession  of  true  spiritual  gifts.  To  own 
the  lordship  of  Jesus  was  the  test  of  a  man's  Chris- 
tianity. Did  he  acknowledge  as  supreme  that  Person 
who  had  lived  and  died  under  the  name  of  Jesus  ? 
Did  he  employ  his  spiritual  gifts  for  the  furtherance  of 
His  kingdom  and  as  one  who  was  really  endeavouring 
to  serve  this  unseen  Master?  Then  no  hesitation  need 
be  shown  in  admitting  his  claim  to  be  animated  by  the 
Spirit  of  God. 

In  other  words,  Paul  wishes  them  to  understand  that, 
after  all,  the  only  sure  test  of  a  man's  Christianity  is 
his  actual  submission  to  Christ.  No  wonderful  works 
he  may  accom.plish  in  the  Church  or  in  the  world  prove 
his  possession  of  Christ's  Spirit.  ^'  Many  will  say  to 
Me  in  that  day.  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in 
Thy  name,  and  in  Thy  name  have  cast  out  devils, 
and  in  Thy  name  done  many  wonderful  works  ?  And 
then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you ; 
depart  from  Me,  ye  that  work  iniquity."  A  man  may 
gather  and  edify  a  large  congregation,  he  may  write  ably 
in  defence  of  Christianity,  he  may  be  recognised  as  a 
benefactor  of  his  age,  or  he  may  be  considered  the  most 
successful  of  missionaries,  but  the  only  test  of  a  man's 
claim  to  be  listened  to  by  the  Church  is  his  actual  sub- 
mission to  Christ.  He  will  seek  not  his  own  glory,  but 
the  good  of  men.  And  as  to  the  gifts  themselves,  they 
should  be  no  cause  of  discord,  for  they  have  everything 


282     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

in  common  :  they  have  their  source  in  God  ;  they  are  for 
Christ's  service ;  they  are  forms  of  the  same  Spirit. 
**  There  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  Spirit. 
And  ithere  are  differences  of  administrations,  but  the 
same  Lord.  And  there  are  diversities  of  operations, 
b-it  it  is  the  same  God  which  worketh  all  in  all." 

The  new  life  then  introduced  by  Chiist  into  the  indi- 
vidual and  society  was  found  to  assume  various  forms 
and  to  suffice  for  all  the  needs  of  human  nature  in  this 
world.  Paul  delighted  to  survey  the  variety  of  endow- 
ment and  faculty  which  appeared  in  the  Church. 
Wisdom,  knowledge,  faith,  power  to  work  miracles, 
extraordinary  gifts  of  exhortation  or  prophecy  and 
also  of  speaking  in  unknown  tongues,  capacity  for 
managing  affairs  and  general  helpfulness — these  and 
other  gifts  were  the  efflorescence  of  the  new  life.  As 
the  sun  in  spring  develops  each  seed  according  to  its 
own  special  kind  and  character,  so  this  new  spiritual 
force  develops  in  each  man  his  most  intimate  and 
special  character.  Christian  influence  is  not  an  external 
appliance  that  clips  all  men  after  one  pattern  as  trees 
in  an  avenue  are  clipped  into  one  shape  ;  but  it  is  an 
inward  and  vital  power  whicli  causes  each  to  grow 
according  to  his  own  individuality,  one  with  the  rugged 
irregularity  of  the  oak,  another  with  the  orderly  rich- 
ness of  the  plane.  Variety  in  harmony  is  said  to  be 
the  principle  of  all  beauty,  and  it  is  this  which  the 
Divine  Spirit  in  man  produces.  Individual  distinctions 
are  not  obliterated,  but  developed  and  directed  for  the 
service  of  the  community.  At  one  in  their  allegiance 
to  Christ,  bound  into  one  body  by  common  affections, 
beliefs,  and  hopes,  and  aiming  at  the  advancement  oi 
one  cause.  Christians  are  yet  as  different  as  other  men 
in  faculty,  in  temperament,  in  attainment. 


xii.  I-30.]         CONCERNING  SPIRITUAL    GIFTS.  283 

■ — ' ^ y 

There  is  no  truth  coming  more  determinedly  to  the      ,  ^ 
front  in   our  own  day  than   this:   that  society  is    an^^^ 
organism  similar  to  the  human  body.     This  indeed  is  - 

no  new  idea,  nor  is  it  an  exclusively  Christian  idea. 
That  man  w^as  made  for  society  and  that  it  was  each 
man's  business  to  labour  for  the  good  of  the  whole  was 
common  Stoic  doctrine.  It  was  taught  that  every  man 
should  believe  himself  to  be  born,  not  for  himself,  but 
for  the  whole  world.  Take  one  out  of  many  expres- 
sions of  this  truth  :  "  You  have  seen  a  hand  cut  off,  or 
a  foot,  or  a  head,  lying  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  body  ; 
that  is  w^hat  a  man  makes  himself  when  he  separates 
himself  from  others  or  does  anything  unsocial.  You 
were  made  by  nature  a  part ;  and  it  is  due  to  the  bene- 
volence of  God  that,  if  you  have  become  detached  from 
the  whole,  you  can  be  reunited  to  it."  And  in  the  very 
earliest  days,  when  the  populace  of  Rome  became  dis- 
affected and  seditious  and  retired  outside  the  city  walls 
to  a  camp  of  their  own,  Menenius  Agrippa  went  out  to 
them  and  uttered  his  fable  which  Shakespeare  has 
helped  to  make  famous.  He  related  how  the  various 
members  of  the  body — the  hand,  the  eye,  the  ear — 
mutinied  and  refused  to  work  any  longer  because  it^ 
seemed  to  them  that  all  the  food  and  enjoyment  for 
which  they  toiled  went  to  another  member,  and  not  to 
them.  It  was  of  course  easy  for  the  accused  member 
to  clear  itself  of  the  charge  of  inactivity  and  show  that 
the  food  it  received  was  not  retained  for  its  own  ex- 
clusive use,  but  was  distributed  through  the  rivers  of 
the  blood,  and  how  "the  strongest  nerves  and  small 
inferior  veins  "  from  it  received  the  natural  competency 
whereby  they  lived. 

But  although  this  comparison  of  society  to  the  body 
is  not  new,  it  is  now  being  more  seriously  and  scientific- 


284     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

ally  examined  and  pushed  to  its  legitimate  conclusions 
and  applications.  The  "  real  meaning  of  the  doctrine 
that  society  is  an  organism  is  that  an  individual  has 
no  life  except  that  which  is  social,  and  that  he  cannot 
realize  his  own  purposes  except  in  realizing  the  larger 
purposes  of  society."  All  the  organs  of  the  body  by 
which  we  do  our  work  in  the  world  and  earn  our  bread 
are  themselves  maintained  in  life  and  fulfil  the  end  of 
their  own  existence  by  working  for  and  maintaining  the 
whole  body ;  and  except  in  the  common  life  of  the  body 
they  cannot  be  maintained  at  all.  It  is  the  same  with 
the  other  organs  of  the  body.  The  heart,  the  lungs, 
the  digestive  organs,  have  hard  and  constant  work  to 
do  ;  but  only  by  doing  it  can  they  fulfil  the  very  purpose 
of  their  existence  and  maintain  themselves  in  life  by 
contributing  to  the  life  of  the  body  in  which  alone  they 
can  live  at  all.  The  same  principle  holds  good  in 
society.  It  is  obvious  in  trade  and  commerce  ;  a  man 
can  only  maintain  himself  in  life  by  helping  to  maintain 
other  people.  And  the  ideal  society  is  one  in  which 
each  man  should  not  only  yield  reluctantly  to  the  com- 
pulsion of  this  natural  law,  but  should  clearly  see  the 
great  ends  for  which  mankind  exists  and  labour 
zealously  to  promote  these  ends,  should  as  eagerly  seek 
what  contributes  to  the  good  of  the  whole  as  the  hand 
is  stretched  out  for  food  or  as  the  palate  relishes  what 
stays  the  appetite  and  nourishes  the  whole  body. 

Illustrating  the  relation  of  Christians  to  one  another 
by  the  figure  of  the  members  of  a  body,  Paul  suggests 
several  ideas. 

I.  The  unity  of  Christians  is  a  vital  unity.  The 
members  of  the  body  of  Christ  form  one  whole  because 
they  partake  of  one  common  life.  "  By  one  Spirit  are 
we  all  baptized  into  one  body,  whether  we  be  Jews  or 


xii.  1-30.]        CONCERNING  SPIRITUAL   GIFTS.  285 

Gentiles,  whether  we  be  bond  or  free ;  and  have 
been  all  made  to  drink  into  one  Spirit."  The  unity 
of  those  who  together  form  the  body  of  Christ  is  not 
a  mechanical  unity,  as  of  a  pound  of  shot  in  a  bag  ; 
nor  is  it  a  unity  imposed  by  external  force,  as  of  caged 
wild  beasts  in  a  menagerie  ;  nor  is  it  a  unity  of  mere 
accidental  juxtaposition,  as  of  passengers  in  a  train 
or  of  the  inhabitants  of  a  town.  But  as  the  life  of  the 
human  body  maintains  all  the  various  members  and 
nourishes  them  to  a  well-proportioned  and  harmonious 
growth,  so  is  it  in  the  body  of  Christ.  Remove  from 
the  human  body  the  life  that  supports  it,  and  all  the 
members  fall  away  from  connection  with  one  another; 
but  so  long  as  the  life  is  retained  it  assimilates  in  the 
most  surprising  way  all  nutriment  to  its  own  precise 
type  and  form.  The  lion  and  the  tiger  may  eat  precisely 
the  same  food,  but  that  food  nourishes  in  each  a 
different  form.  The  life  that  animates  the  human  body 
assimilates  nutriment  to  its  own  uses,  imparting  to 
each  miemiber  its  due  proportion  and  maintaining  all 
the  members  in  their  relation  to  one  another. 

The  unity  of  Christians  is  a  unity  of  this  kind,  a 
vital  unity.  The  samie  spiritual  life  exists  in  all  Chris- 
tians, derived  from  the  same  source,  supplying  them, 
with  similar  energy,  and  prompting  them  to  the  same 
habits  and  aims.  They  accept  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
and  so  are  formed  into  one  body,  being  no  more 
isolated,  self-seeking,  and  each  man  fighting  for  his 
own  hand,  but  banded  together  for  the  promotion  of 
one  common  cause.  There  is  no  clashing  between  the 
interests  of  the  individual  and  the  interests  of  the 
society  or  kingdom  to  which  he  belongs.  The  member 
finds  its  only  life  and  function  in  the  body.  It  is  by 
the  freest  and  most  deliberate  exercise  of  his  reason 


286     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

and  his  will  that  a  man  attaches  himself  to  Christ, 
seeing  that  by  so  doing  he  enters  the  only  path  to  real 
happiness  and  attainment.  The  individual  can  only 
utter  and  fulfil  his  best  self  by  doing  his  possible  for 
society.  His  devotement  to  public  interests  is  no 
self-destroying  generosity,  but  the  dictate  of  duty  and 
of  reason.  To  quote  a  writer  who  deals  with  this 
matter  from  the  philosophical  point  of  view,  "  he  who 
has  made  the  welfare  of  the  race  his  aim  has  done  so, 
not  from  a  generous  choice,  but  because  he  regards  the 
pursuit  of  this  welfare  as  his  imperative  duty.  The 
welfare  of  the  race  is  his  own  ideal,  what  he  must 
realize  in  order  to  be  what  he  ought  to  be.  The  welfare 
of  the  race  is  his  own  welfare,  which  he  must  seek  be- 
cause he  must  be  himself.  Cromwell,  Luther,  Mahomet, 
were  heroes,  not  because  they  did  something  over  and 
above  what  they  ought  to  have  done,  but  because  their 
ideal  self  was  coextensive  with  the  larger  life  of  their 
world.  '  I  can  no  other '  was  the  voice  of  each.  .  ,  . 
Their  large  purposes  were  what  they  owed  to  them- 
selves just  as  much  as  to  their  world."^ 

Those  who  cannot  philosophically  reconcile  the  claims 
of  society  and  the  claims  of  the  individual  are  yet 
enabled  by  their  attachment  to  Christ  and  by  their 
acceptance  of  His  Spirit  to  merge  self  in  the  larger 
whole  of  Christ's  body  and  find  their  truest  life  in 
seeking  the  good  of  others.  It  is  by  their  acceptance 
of  Christ's  Spirit  as  the  source  and  Guide  of  their  own 
life  that  they  enter  into  fellowship  with  the  community 
of  men. 

2.  Paul  is  careful  to  show  that  the  very  efficiency 
of  the  body  depends  upon  tlie  multiplicity  and  variety 

Professor  Jones  in  Essays  in  Fhiloscphical  Crihcism 


xii.  1-30.  CONCERNING  SPIRITUAL   GIFTS  :l?.i 

of  the  members  of  which  it  is  composed  :  "  If  they 
were  all  one  member,  where  were  the  body  ? "  "  If 
the  whole  body  were  an  eye,  where  were  the  hearing  ? 
If  the  whole  were  hearing,  where  were  the  smelling  ?  " 
The  lowest  forms  of  life  have  either  no  distinct  organs 
or  very  few ;  but  the  higher  we  ascend  in  the  scale 
of  life  the  more  numerous  and  more  distinctly  diffe- 
rentiated are  the  organs.  In  the  lower  forms  one 
member  discharges  several  functions,  and  the  animal 
uses  the  same  organ  for  locomotion  as  it  uses  for  eating 
and  digesting  ;  in  the  higher  forms  each  department 
of  life  and  activity  is  presided  over  by  its  own  sense 
or  organ.  The  same  law  holds  good  of  societ3\  Among 
tribes  low  down  in  the  scale  of  civilisation  each  man 
is  his  own  farmer,  or  shepherd,  or  huntsman,  and  his 
own  priest,  and  butcher,  and  cook,  and  clothier.  Each 
man  does  everything  for  himse'f  But  as  men  become 
civilised  the  various  wants  of  society  are  supplied  by 
different  individuals,  and  every  function  is  specialized. 
The  same  law  necessarily  holds  true  of  the  body  of 
Christ.  It  is  highly  organized,  and  no  one  organ  can 
do  the  whole  work  of  the  body.  Therefore  one  has 
this  gift,  another  that.  And  the  more  nearly  this 
body  approaches  perfection,  the  more  various  and  dis- 
tinct will  these  gifts  be. 

One  important  function  of  the  Church  therefore  is 
to  elicit  and  utilize  every  faculty  for  good  which  its 
members  possess.  In  a  society  in  which  Christianity 
is  but  beginning  to  take  root,  it  may  fall  to  one  man 
to  do  the  work  of  the  whole  Christian  body — to  be  eye, 
tongue,  foot,  hand,  and  heart.  He  must  evangelise,  he 
must  teach,  he  must  legislate,  he  must  enforce  law ; 
he  must  preach,  he  must  pray,  he  must  lead  the 
singing;  he  must  plan    the  chuich  and  help  to  build 


1/ 


288     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

it ;  translate  the  Scriptures  and  help  to  print  them  ; 
teach  the  savages  to  wear  a  little  clothing  and  help  to 
make  it ;  dissuade  them  from  war  and  instruct  them 
in  the  arts  of  peace,  instilling  a  taste  for  agriculture 
and  commerce.  But  when  the  Christian  society  has  left 
this  rudimentary  stage  behind,  those  various  functions 
are  discharged  by  different  individtials ;  and  as  it 
advances  towards  a  perfect  condition  its  functions  and 
organs  become  as  multifarious  and  as  distinctly  diffe- 
rentiated as  the  organs  of  the  human  body.  Every 
member  of  the  Church  is  different  from  every  other, 
and  has  a  gift  of  his  own.  Some  are  fitted  to  nourish 
the  Church  herself  and  maintain  the  body  of  Christ 
in  health  and  efficiency;  some  are  fitted  to  act  on  the 
world  outside :  they  are  eyes  to  perceive,  feet  to 
pursue,  hands  to  lay  hold  of  those  who  are  straying 
from  the  light. 

Every  one  therefore  who  is  drawn  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  body  of  Christ  has  something  to  contribute 
to  its  good  and  to  the  work  it  does.  He  is  in  connec- 
tion with  that  body  because  the  Spirit  of  Christ  has 
possessed  and  assimilated  him  to  it ;  and  that  Spirit 
energizes  in  him.  He  may  not  see  that  anything  the 
Church  is  presently  engaged  in  is  work  he  can  under- 
take. He  may  feel  out  of  place  and  awkward  when  he 
attempts  to  do  what  others  are  doing.  He  feels  himself 
like  a  greyhound,  compelled  to  run  by  scent  and  not 
by  sight,  and  expected  to  do  the  work  of  a  pointer,  and 
not  seize  his  quarry,  or  as  if  set  to  do  the  work  of 
an  eye  with  the  hand.  He  can  do  it  only  in  a  groping, 
fumbling,  imperfect  manner.  But  this  is  only  a  hint 
that  he  is  meant  for  ether  work,  not  for  none.  And 
it  is  for  him  to  discover  what  his  Christian  instincts 
lead  him  to.     The  eye  does  not  need  to  be  told  it  is 


xii.  1-30.]         CONCERNING  SPIRITUAL    GIFTS,  289 

for  seeing,  or  the  hand  that  it  is  for  grasping.  The 
eye  and  the  hand  of  the  child  instinctively  do  their 
office.  And  where  there  is  true  Christian  Ufe,  it 
matters  not  what  the  member  of  Christ's  body  be,  it 
will  find  its  function,  even  though  that  function  is 
new  in  the  Church's  experience. 

The  fact  then. that  you  are  very  different  from  the 
ordinary    members    of  the    Church    is    no    reason    for 
supposing  you  do  not  belong  to  Christ's  body.     The 
ear  is  very  different  from  the  eye;  it  can  detect  neither 
form  nor  colour ;  it  cannot  enjoy  a  landscape  or  welcome 
a  friend  :  but  "  if  the  ear  shall  say,  Because  I  am  not 
the  eye,  I  am  not  of  the  body ;  is  it  therefore  not  of  the 
body  ?  "     Is  it  not,  on  the  contrary,  its  very  diversity 
from  the  eye  that  makes  it  a  welcome  addition  to  the 
body,  enriching  its  capabilities  and  enlarging  its  useful- 
ness ?     It  is  not  by  comparison  with  other  people  that 
we  can  tell  whether  we  belong  to  the  body  of  Christ, 
nor  is  our  function  in  that  body  determined  by  anything 
which  some  other  member  is  doing.     The  very  difficulty 
we  find  in  adjusting  ourselves  to  others  and  in  finding 
any  already  existing  Christian  w^ork  to  which  we  can 
give  ourselves  is  a  hint  that  we  have  the  opportunity 
of  adding  to  the  Church's  efficiency.     The  Church  can 
claim  to  be  perfect  only  when  she  embraces  the  most 
diversely   gifted    individuals    and    allows   the    tastes, 
instincts,  and  aptitudes  of  all  to  be  used  in  her  work. 
3.  As  there  is  to  be  no  slothful  self-disparagement 
in  the  body  of  Christ,  so  must  there  be  no  depreciation 
of  other  people.      "  The  eye  cannot  say  unto  the  hand, 
I  have  no  need  of  thee  :  nor  again  the  head  to  the  feet, 
I  have  no  need  of  you."     When  zealous  people  dis- 
cover new  methods,  they  forthwith  despise  the  normal 
ecclesiastical   system  that    has    stood    the   test  and  is 

A9 


290     HIE  1-lKST  EPISTLE    TO   TJJE   CORINTHIANS. 


Stamped  with  the  approval  of  centuries.  One  method 
cannot  regenerate  and  Christianize  the  world,  any  more 
than  one  member  can  do  the  whole  work  of  the  body. 
Paul  goes  even  further,  and  reminds  us  that  the 
"  feeble  "  parts  of  the  body  are  "  the  more  necessary ; " 
the  heart,  the  brain,  the  lungs,  and  all  those  delicate 
members  of  the  body  that  do  its  essential  work  entirely 
hidden  from  view  are  more  necessary  than  the  hand 
or  the  foot,  the  loss  of  which  no  doubt  cripples,  but 
does  not  kill.  So  in  the  Church  of  Christ  it  is  the 
hidden  souls  who  by  their  prayers  and  domestic  godli- 
ness maintain  the  whole  body  in  health  and  enable 
more  conspicuously  gifted  members  to  do  their  part. 
Contempt  for  any  member  of  the  body  of  Christ  is 
most  unseemly  and  sinful.  Yet  men  seem  unable  ever 
to  learn  how  many  members,  and  how  various,  it  takes 
to  complete  a  body,  and  how  needful  are  those  functions 
they  themselves  are  wholly  unable  to  discharge. 

4.  Lastly,  Paul  is  careful  to  teach  that  "  the  mani- 
festation of  the  Spirit  is  given  to  every  man  to  profit 
withair  It  is  not  for  the  glorification  of  the  individual 
that  the  new  spiritual  life  manifests  itself  in  this  or 
that  remarkable  form,  but  for  the  edification  of  the 
body  of  Christ.  However  beautiful  any  feature  of  a 
face  may  be,  it  is  hideous  apart  from  its  position  among 
the  rest  and  lying  by  itself.  Morally  hideous  and  no 
longer  admirable  is  the  Christian  who  attracts  attention 
to  himself  and  does  not  subordinate  his  gift  to  the 
advantage  of  the  whole  body  of  Christ.  If  in  the 
human  body  any  member  asserts  itself  and  is  not 
subservient  to  the  one  central  will,  that  is  recognised 
as  disease :  St.  Vitus'  dance.  If  any  member  ceases 
to  obey  the  central  will,  paralysis  is  indicated.  And 
equally  so   is  disease  indicated  wherever  a  Christian 


xii.  1-30.]         CONCERNING  SPIRITUAL   GIFTS.  291 

seeks  his  own  ends  or  his  own  glorification,  and  not 
the  advantage  of  the  whole  body.  Simon  Magus 
sought  to  make  a  reputation  and  a  competence  for 
himself  by  spiritual  gifts.  What  in  his  case  w^as 
mainly  stupidity  is  in  ours  sin  if  we  use  such  powers 
and  opportunities  as  we  have  for  our  own  purposes, 
and  not  wdth  a  view  to  the  profit  of  others. 

Let  us  then  endeavour  to  recognise  our  position  as 
members  of  Christ's  body.  Let  us  with  seriousness 
accept  Him  as  appointed  by  God  to  be  our  true  spiritual 
Life  and  Head ;  let  us  consider  what  we  have  it  in  our 
power  to  do  for  the  good  of  the  whole  body ;  and  let 
us  put  aside  all  jealousy,  envy,  and  selfishness,  and 
with  meekness  honour  the  work  done  by  others  while 
humbly  and  hopefully  doing  our  own. 


NO   GIFT  LIKE   LOVE, 


"  But  covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts  :  and  yet  show  I  unto  you  a  more 
excellent  way.  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of 
angels,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am  become  as  sounding  brass,  or  a 
tinkling  cymbal.  And  though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  under- 
stand all  mysteries,  and  all  knowledge ;  and  though  I  have  all  faith, 
so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am 
nothing.  And  though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and 
though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not  charit}',  it 
profitcth  me  nothing.  Charity  suffereth  long,  and  is  kind ;  charity 
envieth  not ;  charity  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up,  doth  not 
behave  itself  unseemly,  seeketh  not  her  own,  is  not  easily  provoked, 
thinketh  no  evil  ;  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  in  the  truth; 
beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth 
all  things.  Charity  never  faileth  :  but  whether  there  be  prophecies, 
they  shall  fail ;  whether  there  be  tongues,  they  shall  cease;  whether 
there  be  knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away.  For  we  know  in  part,  and 
we  prophesy  in  part.  But  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then 
that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away.  When  I  was  a  child,  I 
spake  as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a  child,  I  thought  as  a  child  :  but 
when  I  became  a  man,  I  put  away  childish  things.  For  now  we  see 
through  a  glass,  darkly  ;  but  then  face  to  face  :  now  I  know  in  part ; 
but  then  shall  I  know  even  as  also  I  am  known.  And  now  abideth 
faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three;  but  the  greatest  of  these  is  charity.'" 
— I  Cor.  xii.  31 — xiii.  13. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

NO   GIFT  LIKE  LOVE. 

THIS  is  one  of  the  passages  of  Scripture  which 
an  expositor  scruples  to  touch.  Some  of  the 
bloom  and  delicacy  of  surface  passes  from  the  flower 
in  the  very  handling  which  is  meant  to  exhibit  its 
fineness  of  texture.  But  although  this  eulogium  of 
love  is  its  own  best  interpreter,  there  are  points  in  it 
which  require  both  explanation  and  enforcement. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  (xii.)  Paul  has  striven  to 
suppress  the  envy,  vanity,  and  discord  which  had 
resulted  from  the  abuse  of  the  spiritual  gifts  with 
which  the  Corinthian  Church  was  endowed.  He  has 
explained  that  these  gifts  were  bestowed  for  the  edi- 
fication of  the  Church,  and  not  for  the  glorification  of 
the  individual ;  and  that  therefore  the  individual  should 
covet,  not  the  most  surprising,  but  the  most  profitable, 
of  these  manifestations  of  the  Spirit.  "  Covet  the  best 
gifts,"  he  says  :  Desire  the  gifts  which  edify,  the  gift 
of  exhortation,  or,  as  it  was  then  called,  prophecy.  And 
yet  there  is  a  more  excellent  way  to  edify  the  Church 
than  even  to  exercise  apostoHc  gifts  ;  this  is  the  way 
of  love,  which  he  proceeds  to  celebrate. 

I.  Love  is  the  ligament  which  binds  together  the 
several  members  of  the  body  of  Christ,  the  cement 
which  keeps  the  stones  of  the  temple  together.     With- 


296     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHTANS. 


out  love  there  can  be  no  body,  no  temple,  only 
isolated  stones  or  disconnected,  and  therefore  useless, 
members.  The  extraordinary  gifts  of  which  the  Corin- 
thians were  so  proud  cannot  compete  with  love.  They 
may  profit  the  Church,  but  without  love  they  are  no 
evidence  of  the  ripe  Christian  manhood  of  their  pos- 
sessor. Suppose  I  speak  all  possible  languages — 
languages  of  angels,  if  you  please,  as  well  as  languages 
of  men — and  have  not  love,  I  am  but  a  mere  instrument 
played  upon  by  another,  no  better  than  a  bit  of  sound- 
ing brass,  a  trumpet  or  a  cymbal,  not  enjoying,  nor 
moved  by,  nor  swayed  by  the  music  I  make,  but 
insensible.  As  Bunyan  says,  "  Is  it  so  much  to  be 
a  fiddle  ?"  If  no  man  understands  the  language  I 
am  impelled  to  use,  then  I  am  but  as  a  clanging 
cymbal,  making  a  noise  without  significance.  And 
even  though  I  speak  a  tongue  which  some  stranger 
recognises  as  his  own,  it  is  not  I  who  am  coming  into 
contact  with  his  soul  through  a  living  influence  ;  I  am 
but  used  as  an  instrument  of  brass  is  used  by  the 
player. 

Or  take  even  the  higher  gift  of  prophecy.  Suppose 
I  am  enlightened  by  the  Spirit  so  that  I  can  explain 
things  hitherto  misunderstood ;  suppose  I  can  make 
revelations  of  important  truths  which  have  been  access- 
ible to  none  besides ;  suppose  even  that  I  have  all 
faith,  faith,  as  the  rabbis  say,  to  remove  mountains ; 
suppose  I  can  work  miracles,  heal  the  sick,  raise  the 
dead,  set  the  whole  world  agape  with  astonishment, 
all  this  without  love,  however  it  may  profit  others, 
profits  myself  not  at  all,  and  neither  brings  me  into 
closer  connection  with  Christ  nor  gives  assurance  of 
my  sound  spiritual  condition.  I  may  be  among  the 
number   of  those  who,   after   doing    wonderful  works 


xii.31-xiii.13.]  NO   GIFT  LIKE  LOVE.  297 


in  Christ's  name,  are  repudiated  by  Him.  For  as 
among  ourselves  there  are  many  gifts,  such  as  learning, 
eloquence,  sagacity,  musical,  and  poetical,  and  artistic 
genius,  which  may  greatly  contribute  to  the  edification 
of  the  Church,  and  yet  reside  in  persons  who  can  make 
little  claim  to  sanctity,  so  in  the  early  Church  these 
extraordinary  spiritual  gifts  seem  to  have  carried  with 
them  no  evidence  of  their  possessors'  personal  religion. 
They  had  certainly  begun  a  Christian  career,  but  they 
might  be  deteriorating  in  character  instead  of  develop- 
ing and  maturing. 

There  were,  however,  two  Christian  actions  which 
might  seem  to  be  beyond  question  as  evidence  of  a 
sound  spiritual  condition  :  almsgiving  and  martyrdom. 
The  young  man  who  sought  guidance  from  Christ 
lacked  but  one  thing  :  to  sell  his  property  and  give 
to  the  poor.  But,  says  Paul,  "  though  I  bestow 
all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  have  not  love,  it 
profiteth  me  nothing."  It  is  only  too  possible  to  do 
great  acts  of  charity  from  a  love  of  display,  or  from 
an  uneasy  sense  of  duty  which  parts  reluctantly  and 
grudgingly  with  what  it  bestows.  That  is  understood. 
Common-sense  tells  every  one  but  the  abjectly  super- 
stitious man  himself  that  it  is  as  impossible  to  buy 
spiritual  health  on  a  bed  of  death  as  it  is  to  buy  the 
cure  of  his  mortal  disease. 

But  martyrdom  ?  Can  a  man  give  any  stronger 
proof  of  his  faith  than  to  give  his  body  to  be  burned  ? 
Certainly  one  would  with  great  reluctance  disparage 
the  integrity  of  those  courageous  persons  w*ho  in  many 
ages  of  the  Church's  history  have  gone  without  flinch- 
ing to  the  stake.  But,  in  point  of  fact,  a  willingness 
to  suffer  for  one's  opinion  or  one's  faith  is  not  in  every 
case  a  guarantee  of  the  existence  of  a  heart  tr.i::sformed 


298     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

from  selfishness  to  love.  At  one  period  martyrdom 
became  fashionable,  and  Christian  teachers  were  com- 
pelled to  remonstrate  with  those  who  fanatically  rushed 
to  the  stake  and  the  arena,  just  as  suicide  once  became 
fashionable  at  Rome  and  evoked  prohibitory  legislation. 
Not  without  reason  then  does  Paul  so  emphatically 
warn  men  against  looking  upon  such  exceptional  actions 
or  such  extraordinary  endowments  as  undoubted  evi- 
dence of  a  healthy  spiritual  state.  Gifts  and  conduct 
which  bring  men  prominently  before  the  eye  of  the 
Church  or  the  world  are  often  no  index  to  the  character  ; 
and  if  they  be  not  rooted  in  and  guided  by  love,  their 
possessor  has  little  reason  to  congratulate  himself. 
Too  often  it  is  a  man's  snare  to  judge  himself  by  what 
he  does  rather  than  by  what  he  is.  It  is  so  easy  com- 
paratively to  do  great  things  supposing  certain  gifts 
be  present;  it  is  at  least  always  possible  to  human 
nature  to  make  sacrifices  and  engage  in  arduous  duties. 
The  impossible  thing  is  love.  No  eye  to  advantageous 
consequences  or  to  public  opinion  can  enable  a  man 
to  love  ;  no  desire  to  maintain  a  character  for  piety 
can  produce  that  grace.  Love  must  be  spontaneous, 
from  the  soul's  self,  not  produced  by  considerations  or 
the  requirements  of  a  position  we  wish  to  reach  or  to 
maintain.  It  must  be  the  unconstrained,  natural  out- 
tome  of  the  real  man.  Not  even  the  consideration 
of  Christ's  love  will  produce  love  in  us  if  there  be 
not  a  real  sympathy  with  Christ.  A  sense  of  benefit 
received  will  not  produce  love  where  there  is  no 
similarity  of  sentiment.  Love  cannot  be  got  up.  It 
is  the  result  of  God  entering  and  possessing  the  soul. 
"  He  that  loveth  is  born  of  God."  That  is  the  only 
account  to  be  given  of  the  matter.  And  therefore  it  is 
that  where  love  is  absent  all  is  absent. 


xii  3i-xiii.  I3-]  NO   GIFT  LIKE  LOVE.  299 


And  yet  how  the  mistake  of  the  Corinthians  is 
perpetuated  from  age  to  age.  The  Church  is  smitten 
with  a  genuine  admiration  of  talent,  of  the  faculties 
which  make  the  body  of  Christ  bulk  larger  in  the 
eye  of  the  world,  while  too  often  love  is  neglected. 
After  all  that  the  Church  has  learned  of  the  dangers 
which  accompany  theological  controversy,  and  of  the 
hollowness  of  much  that  passes  for  growth,  intellectual 
gifts  are  frequently  prized  more  highly  than  love. 
Do  we  not  ourselves  often  become  aware  that  the 
absence  of  this  one  thing  needful  is  writing  vanity  and 
failure  on  all  we  do  and  on  all  we  are?  If  we  are 
not  yet  in  the  real  fellowship  of  the  body  of  Christ, 
possessed  by  a  love  that  prompts  us  to  ser\e  the 
whole,  with  what  complacency  can  we  look  on  other 
acquirements  ?  Do  parents  sufficiently  impress  on 
their  children  that  all  successes  at  school  and  in  early 
life  are  as  nothing  compared  to  the  more  obscure 
but  much  more  substantial  acquisition  of  a  thoroughly 
unselfish,  generous,  cathoHc  spirit  of  service  ? 

2.  Paul  having  illustrated  the  supremacy  of  love 
by  showing  that  without  it  all  other  gifts  are  profitless, 
proceeds  (vers.  4-7)  to  celebrate  its  own  positive 
excellence.  It  is  possible,  though  unlikely,  that  Paul 
may  have  read  the  eulogium  pronounced  on  love  by 
the  greatest  of  Greek  writers  five  hundred  years  be- 
fore :  "  Love  is  our  lord,  supplying  kindness  and 
banishing  unkindness,  giving  friendship  and  forgiving 
enmity,  the  joy  of  the  good,  the  wonder  of  the  wise, 
the  amazement  of  the  gods;  desired  by  those  who 
have  no  part  in  him,  and  precious  to  those  who  have 
the  better  part  in  him;  parent  of  delicacy,  luxury, 
desire,  fondness,  softness,  grace ;  careful  of  the  good, 
uncareful   of  the   evil.      In   every  word,  work, 'wish, 


300     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

fear — pilot,  helper,  defender,  saviour;  glory  of  gods 
and  men.  leader  best  and  brightest ;  in  whose  footsteps 
let  every  man  follow,  chanting  a  hymn  and  joining 
in  that  fair  strain  with  which  love  charms  the  souls  of 
gods  and  m.en."  Five  hundred  years  after  Paul  another 
eulogium  was  pronounced  on  love  by  Mohammed : 
"  Every  good  act  is  charity  :  your  smiling  in  your 
brother's  face ;  your  putting  a  wanderer  in  the  right 
road ;  your  giving  water  to  the  thirsty,  or  exhortations 
to  others  to  do  right.  A  man's  true  wealth  hereafter 
is  the  good  he  has  done  in  this  world  to  his  fellow-man. 
When  he  dies,  people  will  ask,  What  property  has 
he  left  behind  him  ?  but  the  angels  will  ask  what 
good  deeds  he  has  sent  before  him." 

Paul's  eulogium  is  the  more  effective  because  it 
exhibits  in  detail  the  various  ramifications  of  this 
exuberant  and  fruitful  grace,  how  it  runs  out  into  all 
our  intercourse  with  our  fellow-men  and  carries  with 
it  a  healing  and  sweetening  virtue.  It  imbues  the 
entire  character,  and  contains  in  itself  the  motive  oi 
all  Christian  conduct.  It  is  "  the  fulfilling  of  the  Law." 
Its  claims  are  paramount  because  it  embraces  all  other 
virtues.  If  a  man  has  love,  there  is  no  grace  impossible 
to  him  or  into  which  love  will  not  on  occasion  develop. 
Love  becomes  courage  of  the  most  absolute  kind 
where  danger  threatens  its  object.  It  begets  a  wisdom 
and  a  skill  which  put  to  shame  technical  training  and 
experience.  It  brings  forth  self-restraint  and  temper- 
ance as  its  natural  fruit ;  it  is  patient,  forgiving, 
modest,  humble,  sympathizing.      It  is  quite  true  that 

"As  every  lovely  hue  is  light, 
So  every  grace  is  love." 

Thomas    a    Kcmpis    dwells    with    evident    relish    on 


xii.3i-xiii.  13.]  NO   GIFT  LIKE  LOVE.  301 

the  varied  capacity  of  this  all-comprehending  grace. 
"Love/'  he  says,  '^ feels  no  burden,  regards  not  labours, 
would  willingly  do  more  than  it  is  able,  pleads  not 
impossibilities,  because  it  feels  sure  that  it  can  and 
may  do  all  things.  Love  is  swift,  sincere,  pious,  pleas- 
ant, and  delightful ;  strong,  patient,  faithful,  prudent, 
longsufifering,  manly,  and  never  seeking  itself:  it  is 
circumspect,  humble,  and  upright ;  sober,  chaste,  stead- 
fast, quiet,  and  guarded  in  all  its  senses." 

Paul's  description  of  the  behaviour  of  love  is  drawn 
in  view  of  the  discords  and  vanities  of  the  Corinthians 
and  as  a  contrast  to  their  unseemly  and  unbrotherly 
conduct.  ^*  Love  suffereth  long,  and  is  kind ; "  it 
reveals  itself  in  a  magnanimous  bearing  of  injuries 
and  in  a  considerate  and  tender  imparting  of  benefits. 
It  returns  good  for  evil;  not  readily  provoked  by 
slights  and  wrongs,  it  ever  seeks  to  spend  itself  in 
kindnesses.  Then  there  is  nothing  envious,  vain,  or 
selfish  in  love.  "Love  envieth  not;  love  vaunteth  not 
itself"  It  neither  grudges  others  their  gifts,  nor  is 
eager  to  show  off  its  own.  The  pallor  and  bitter  sneer 
of  envy  and  the  ridiculous  swagger  of  the  boastful  are 
equally  remote  from  love.  "  It  is  not  puffed  up,  and 
doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly."  Love  saves  a  man 
from  making  a  fool  of  himself  by  consequential  conduct, 
and  by  thrusting  himself  into  positions  which  betray 
his  incompetence,  and  by  immodest,  irreverent,  and 
eccentric  actions.  It  balances  a  man  and  gives  him 
sense  by  bringing  him  into  right  relations  with  his 
fellows  and  prompting  him  to  esteem  their  gifts  more 
highly  than  his  own.  Neither  is  love  ever  on  the 
watch  for  its  own  rights,  scrupulously  exacting  the 
remuneration,  the  recognition,  the  applause,  the  pre- 
cedence, the  deference,  that  may  be  due :  "  it  seeketh 


302     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

not  its  own."  *^  It  is  not  easily  provoked,  nor  does  it 
take  account  of  evil;"  it  is  not  fired  with  resentment  at 
every  little  slight,  and  does  not  make  a  mental  note  and 
lay  up  in  its  memory  the  contempt  shown  by  one,  the 
indifference  shown  by  another,  the  intention  to  wound 
betrayed  by  a  third.  Love  is  too  little  occupied  with 
itself  to  feel  these  exhibitions  of  malice  very  keenly. 
It  is  bent  on  winning  the  battle  for  others,  and  the 
wounds  received  in  the  cause  are  made  light  of.  Its 
eye  is  still  on  the  advantage  to  be  gained  by  the  needy, 
and  not  on  itself. 

Another  manifestation  of  love,  and  one  the  mention 
of  which  pricks  the  conscience,  is  that  it  "  rejoiceth 
not  in  unrighteousness."  It  has  no  malignant  pleasure 
in  seeing  reputations  exploded,  in  discovering  the  sin, 
the  hypocrisy,  the  mistakes,  of  other  men.  "  It  rejoiceth 
with  the  truth."  Where  truth  scatters  calumny  and 
shows  that  suspicions  were  ill-founded,  love  rejoices. 
Successful  wickedness,  whether  for  or  against  its  own 
interests,  love  has  no  pleasure  in  ;  but  where  goodness 
triumphs  love  is  thrilled  with  a  sympathetic  joy.  In 
place  of  rejoicing  in  discovered  wickedness  because  it 
lowers  a  rival  or  seems  to  leave  a  more  prominent 
position  to  itself,  love  hastens  to  cover  the  fault. 
"  It  covereth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth 
all  things."  It  has  untiring  charity,  making  every 
allowance,  proposing  every  excuse,  believing  that  ex- 
planations can  be  made,  accepting  greedily  such  as 
are  made,  slow  to  be  persuaded  that  things  are  as 
bad  as  rumour  paints,  hoping  against  hope  for  the 
acquittal,  or  at  any  rate  for  the  reformation,  of  every 
culprit. 

3.  Finally,  Paul  shows  the  supcriorit}'  of  love  by 
comparing  it  in   point  of  permanence,  fiist,  with  the 


xii.3i-xiii.i3.]  NO   GIFT  LIKE  LOVE.  303 

gifts  of  which  the  Corinthians  were  so  proud,  and, 
second,  with  the  universal  Christian  graces. 

"  Love  never  faileth ; "  it  is  imperishable :  it  grows 
from  less  to  more ;  there  never  comes  a  time  when  it 
gives  place  to  some  higher  quality  of  soul,  or  when  it 
is  unimportant  whether  a  man  has  it  or  no,  or  when 
it  is  no  longer  the  criterion  of  the  whole  moral  state. 
The  most  surprising  spiritual  gifts  can  make  no  such 
claim.  "  Whether  there  be  prophecies,  they  shall  be 
done  away ;  whether  there  be  tongues,  they  shall 
cease."  These  gifts  were  for  the  temporary  benefit  of 
the  Church.  However  some  might  misapprehend  their 
significance  and  fancy  that  these  extraordinary  mani- 
festations were  destined  to  characterise  the  Christian 
Church  throughout  its  history,  Paul  was  not  so 
deceived.  He  was  prepared  for  their  disappearance. 
They  were  the  scaffolding  which  no  one  thinks  of  or 
inquires  after  when  the  building  is  finished,  the  school- 
books  which  become  the  merest  rubbish  when  the  boy 
is  educated,  the  prop  which  the  forester  removes  when 
the  sapling  has  become  a  tree. 

But  knowledge  ?  The  knowledge  of  God  and  of 
Divine  things  in  which  good  men  delight,  and  which 
is  esteemed  the  stamina  of  character — is  not  this  per- 
manent ?  No,  says  Paul.  "  Knowledge  also  shall  be 
done  away."  And  to  illustrate  his  meaning  Paul 
uses  two  figures :  the  figure  of  a  child's  knowledge, 
which  is  gradually  lost  in  the  knowledge  of  the  man, 
and  the  figure  of  an  object  dimly  seen  through  a 
semi-transparent  medium.  We  shall  understand  the 
significance  and  the  bearing  of  these  figures  if  we 
consider  that  when  we  speak  of  imperfect  knowledge  we 
may  mean  either  of  two  things  :  we  may  either  mean 
that  it  is  imperfect  in  amount  or  that  it  is  imperfect 


K 


304     THE   FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

in  quality,  in  accuracy.  When  a  boy  begins  the  study 
of  Euclid,  the  first  proposition  he  learns  is  absolutely 
accurate  and  true ;  he  may  add  to  it,  but  he  can 
never  improve  upon  it.  His  knowledge  is  imperfect 
in  amount,  but  so  far  as  it  goes  it  is  absolutely  reliable ; 
he  may  build  upon  it  and  deduce  other  truths  from  it. 
But  when  we  are  walking  on  a  misty  morning  and 
see  an  object  at  a  distance,  our  knowledge  is  imperfect, 
but  in  quite  another  sense.  It  is  imperfect  in  the 
sense  of  being  dim,  uncertain,  inaccurate.  We  see 
that  there  is  something  before  us,  but  whether  a  human 
being  or  a  gatepost  we  cannot  say.  A  little  nearer 
we  see  it  is  a  human  being,  but  whether  old  or  young, 
friend  or  no  friend,  we  cannot  say.  Here  the  growth 
of  our  knowledge  is  from  dimness  to  accuracy. 

Both  the  figures  used  by  Paul  impl}^  that  our  know- 
ledge of  Divine  things  is  of  this  latter  kind.  They 
Icom,  as  it  were,  through  a  mist.  Many  of  their  details 
are  invisible.  We  have  not  got  them  under  our  hand 
to  examine  at  leisure.  Our  present  knowledge  is  as 
the  light  of  a  lantern  by  which  we  can  pick  our  way, 
or  as  the  starlight,  for  which  we  are  thankful  in  the 
meantime ;  but  when  the  sun  of  a  wider,  deeper,  truer 
knowledge  rises,  what  we  now  call  knowledge  shall  be 
quite  echpsed.  "  When  I  was  a  child,"  says  Paul, 
"  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a  child,  I  thought 
as  a  child  :  but  when  I  became  a  man,  I  put  away 
childish  things."  That  is  to  say,  Paul  was  distinctly 
aware  that  much  of  our  present  knowledge  is  pro- 
visional. We  do  not  know  the  very  truth,  but  only 
such  approximations  to  the  truth  and  such  symbols 
of  it  as  we  are  able  to  understand.  We  are  at  present 
in  the  strte  of  childhood,  which  cherishes  many  notions 
destined  to  be  exploded  by  maturer  knowledge.     We 


xii.3i-xiii.  13-]  NO   GIFT  LIKE  LOVE.  305 

think  of  God  as  a  Being  very  similar  to  ourselves,  only 
very  much  greater ;  and  in  our  present  state  we  must 
be  content  with  this  imperfect  knowledge,  but  prepared 
to  put  it  away  as  "  childish  "  when  fuller  knowledge 
comes.  The  atoning  death  of  Christ  may  be  spoken 
of  as  the  substitutionary  sacrifice  of  a  Victim  on  whom 
our  guilt  is  laid ;  but  to  speak  thus  of  the  death  of 
Christ  is  to  make  large  use  of  the  language  of  symbol, 
and  we  must  hold  our  minds  open  for  the  fuller 
knowledge  which  will  make  such  language  seem  quite 
inadequate.  Paul's  language  warns  us  against  speaking, 
or  thinking,  or  acting  as  if  our  knowledge  of  Divine 
things  were  perfectly  accurate,  and  as  if  therefore  we 
might  freely  and  unhesitatingly  condemn  all  who  differ 
from  us. 

The  other  figure  is  still  more  precise,  although  there 
is  great  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  Paul  means 
by  seeing  now  "  through  a  glass,  darkly."  The  word 
here  rendered  "  glass "  is  used  either  for  the  dim 
metallic  mirror  used  by  the  ancients,  or  for  the  semi- 
translucent  talc  which  was  their  substitute  for  glass 
in  windows.  Of  these  two  meanings  it  is  the  latter 
which  in  this  passage  gives  the  best  sense.  It  was  a 
common  figure  among  the  rabbis  to  illustrate  dimness 
of  vision.  If  they  v/ished  to  denote  direct  and  clear 
vision,  they  spoke  of  seeing  a  thing  face  to  face  ;  if  they 
wished  to  denote  uncertain  and  hazy  vision,  they  spoke 
of  seeing  through  a  glass — that  is,  through  a  substance 
only  a  little  more  transparent  than  our  own  dimmed 
glass,  through  which  you  can  see  objects,  but  cannot 
tell  exactly  what  they  are  or  who  the  persons  are  who 
are  moving.  Thus  they  had  a  common  saying,  "All 
other  prophets  saw  as  through  nine  glasses,  Moses  as 
through  one."     The    rabbis,    too,    had  another  saying 

20 


3o6     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

which  illustrates  the  second  part  of  this  twelfth  verse : 
'*  Even  as  a  king,  who  with  common  people  talks 
through  a  veil,  so  that  he  sees  them,  but  they  do  not 
see  him,  but  when  his  friend  comes  to  speak  to  him, 
he  removes  this  veil,  so  that  he  might  see  him  face 
to  face,  even  so  did  God  speak  to  Moses  apparently, 
and  not  darkly."^ 

Interpreting  Paul's  language  then  by  the  language 
of  his  own  kith  and  kin  and  of  the  schools  in  which 
he  had  been  educated,  his  meaning  is  that  in  this  life 
we  can  see  Divine  things  only  dimly  and  as  through 
a  veil,  but  hereafter  we  shall  see  them  without  the 
intervention  of  any  obscuring  medium.  Here  and  now 
we  can  make  out  only  the  general  outline  of  the  unseen 
realities ;  but  hereafter  we  shall  know  even  as  we  are 
known,  shall  see  God  as  directly  as  He  now  sees  us. 
We  shall  not  have  even  then  the  same  perfect  know- 
ledge of  Him  that  He  has  of  us,  but  shall  see  Him 
as  immediately  and  directly  as  He  sees  us.  Now  He 
wears  a  veil  through  which  He  can  see,  but  through 
which  we  cannot  see ;  hereafter  He  will  lay  aside  this. 
Our  present  knowledge  of  God  and  of  all  things  unseen 
is  necessarily  vague,  not  susceptible  of  exact  definition. 
There  are  some  things  of  which  we  may  be  quite  sure, 
others  of  which  we  must  be  content  to  remain  in  un- 
certainty. We  may  be  quite  sure  that  God  exists,  that 
He  loves  us,  that  He  has  sent  His  Son  to  save  us ;  but 
if  we  attempt  to  run  a  sharp  and  clear  outline  round 
the  truths  thus  dimly  seen,  we  shall  inevitably  err. 

It  may  be  added  that  while  Paul  warns  us  against 
supposing  that  our  knowledge  is  perfect,  he  does  not 
mean    to   brand    it   as    useless   or   delusive.     On   the 

'  See  the  passages  in  Wets'^ein  and  Schdttgen. 


xii.31-xiii.13.]  NO   GIFT  LIKE  LOVE.  307 

contrary,  his  figures  imply  that  it  is  necessary  for  our 
growth,  and  that  unless  we  honestly  use  such  knowledge 
as  we  have,  we  cannot  win  our  way  to  knowledge  that 
is  perfect.  It  is  the  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  child 
which  leads  it  on  to  further  attainment.  The  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  the  Christian  creed  that  there  are 
three  Persons  in  one  God  is  certainly  a  very  rough 
and  childish  expression  of  a  truth  far  deeper  than  we 
can  understand,  but  to  reject  this  doctrine  because  it 
is  evidently  only  an  approximation  to  a  truth  which 
cannot  be  defined  and  stated  in  final  terms  is  to  refuse 
to  submit  to  the  conditions  under  which  we  now  live 
and  to  ape  a  manhood  which  in  point  of  fact  we  do 
not  possess. 

Paul's  crowning  testimony  to  the  worth  of  love  is 
given  in  the  thirteenth  verse :  '•  But  now  abideth  faith, 
hope,  love,  these  three ;  and  the  greatest  of  these  is 
love."  He  does  not  mean  that  love  abides  while  faith 
becomes  sight  and  hope  fruition.  Rather  he  indicates 
that  faith  and  hope  are  also  imperishable,  and  hereby 
distinguished  from  the  spiritual  gifts  of  which  he  has 
been  speaking.  Both  in  this  life  and  in  that  which 
is  to  come  faith,  hope,  and  love  abide.  For  faith  and 
hope  pass  away  only  in  one  aspect  of  their  exercise. 
If  by  faith  be  meant  belief  in  things  unseen,  this 
passes  away  when  the  unseen  is  seen.  If  hope  be 
taken  as  referring  only  to  the  future  state  in  general, 
then  when  that  state  is  reached  hope  passes  away. 
But  faith  and  hope  are  really  permanent  elements  of 
human  life,  faith  being  the  confidence  we  have  in 
God,  and  hope  the  ever-renewed  expectancy  of  future 
good.  But  while  faith  maintains  us  in  connection  with 
God,  love  is  the  enjoyment  of  God  and  the  partaking 
of  His  nature ;  and  while  hope  renews  our  energy  and 


3o8     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

guides  our  aims,   it  can   bring   us   to  no  better   thing 
than  love. 

To  see  the  beauty,  fruitfulness,  and  sufficiency  of 
love  is  easy,  but  to  have  it  as  the  mainspring  of  our  own 
life  most  difficult,  indeed  the  greatest  of  all  attainments. 
This  we  instinctively  recognise  as  the  true  test  of  our 
condition.  Have  we  that  in  us  which  really  knits  us 
to  God  and  our  fellow-men  and  prompts  us  to  do 
our  utmost  for  them  ?  Have  we  in  us  this  new 
affection  which  destroys  selfishness  and  brings  us  into 
true  and  lasting  relations  with  all  we  have  to  do 
with  ?  This  is  the  root  of  all  good,  the  beginning  of 
all  blessedness,  because  the  germ  of  all  likeness  to 
God,  who  Himself  is  love. 


SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND  PUBLIC  WORSHIP, 


"  Follow  after  charity,  and  desire  spiritual  gifts,  but  rather  that  ye 
may  prophesy.  For  he  that  speaketh  in  an  unknown  tongue  speaketh 
not  unto  men,  but  unto  God  :  for  no  man  understandeth  him ;  how- 
beit  in  the  Spirit  he  speaketh  mysteries.  But  he  that  prophesieth 
speaketh  unto  men  to  edification,  and  exhortation,  and  comfort.  He 
that  speaketh  in  an  unknown  tongue  edifieth  himself;  but  he  that 
prophesieth  edifieth  the  Church.  I  would  that  ye  all  spake  with 
tongues,  but  rather  that  ye  prophesied  :  for  greater  is  he  that 
prophesieth  than  he  that  speaketh  with  tongues,  except  he  interpret, 
that  the  Church  may  receive  edifying.  Now,  brethren,  if  I  come  unto 
you  speaking  with  tongues,  what  shall  I  profit  you,  except  I  shall 
speak  to  you  either  by  revelation,  or  by  knowledge,  or  b}'  prophesying, 
or  by  doctrine  ?  And  even  things  without  life  giving  sound,  whether 
pipe  or  harp,  except  they  give  a  distinction  in  the  sounds,  how  shall 
it  be  known  what  is  piped  or  harped  ?  For  if  the  trumpet  give  an 
uncertain  sound,  who  shall  prepare  himself  to  the  battle?  So  like- 
wise  ye,  except  ye  utter  by  the  tongue  words  easy  to  be  understood, 
how  shall  it  be  known  what  is  spoken  ?  for  ye  shall  speak  into  the 
air.  There  are,  it  may  be.  so  many  kinds  of  voices  in  the  world,  and 
none  of  them  is  without  signification.  Therefore  if  I  know  not  the 
meaning  of  the  voice,  I  shall  be  unto  him  that  speaketh  a  barbarian, 
and  he  that  speaketh  shall  be  a  barbarian  unto  me.  Even  so  ye, 
forasmuch  as  ye  are  zealous  of  spiritual  gifts,  seek  that  ye  may  excel 
to  the  edifying  of  the  Church.  Wherefore  let  him  that  speaketh  in  an 
unknown  tongue  pray  that  he  may  interpret.  For  if  I  pray  in  an 
unknown  tongue,  my  spirit  prayeth,  but  my  understanding  is  un- 
fruitful. What  is  it  then?  I  will  pray  with  the  spirit,  and  I  will 
pray  with  the  understanding  also  :  I  will  sing  with  the  spirit,  and  I 
will  sing  with  the  understanding  also.  Else  when  thou  shalt  bless 
with  the  spirit,  how  shall  he  that  occupieth  the  room  of  the  unlearned 
say  Amen  at  thy  giving  of  thanks,  seeing  he  understandeth  not  what 
thou  sayest  ?  For  thou  verily  givest  thanks  well,  but  the  other  is  not 
edified.  I  thank  my  God,  I  speak  with  tongues  more  than  ye  all : 
yet  in  the  Church  I  had  rather  speak  five  words  with  my  under- 
standing, that  by  my  voice  I  might  teach  others  also,  than  ten 
thousand  words  in  an  unknown  tongue.     Brethren,  be  not  children 


in  understanding :  howbeit  in  malice  be  ye  children,  but  in  under- 
standing be  men.  In  the  Law  it  is  written,  With  men  of  other 
tongues  and  other  lips  will  I  speak  unto  this  people;  and  yet  for  all 
that  will  they  not  hear  Me,  saith  the  Lord.  Wherefore  tongues  are 
for  a  sign,  not  to  them  that  believe,  but  to  them  that  believe  not : 
but  prophesying  serveth  not  for  them  that  believe  not,  but  for  them 
W'hich  believe.  If  therefore  the  whole  Church  be  come  together  into 
one  place,  and  all  speak  with  tongues,  and  there  come  in  those  that 
are  unlearned,  or  unbelievers,  will  they  not  say  that  ye  are  mad  ? 
But  if  all  prophesy,  and  there  come  in  one  that  believeth  not,  or  one 
unlearned,  he  is  convinced  of  all,  he  is  judged  of  all :  and  thus  are  the 
secrets  of  his  heart  made  manifest;  and  so  falling  down  on  his  face 
he  will  worship  God,  and  report  that  God  is  in  you  of  a  truth.  How 
is  it  then,  brethren  ?  when  ye  come  together,  every  one  of  you  hath 
a  psalm,  hath  a  doctrine,  hath  a  tongue,  hath  a  revelation,  hath  an  in- 
terpretation. Let  all  things  be  done  unto  edifying.  If  any  man 
speak  in  an  unknown  tongue,  let  it  be  by  two,  or  at  the  most  by 
three,  and  that  by  course  ;  and  let  one  interpret.  But  if  there  be  no 
interpreter,  let  him  keep  silence  in  the  Church  ;  and  let  him  speak  to 
himself,  and  to  God.  Let  the  prophets  speak  two  or  three,  and  let 
the  other  judge.  If  anything  be  revealed  to  another  that  sittcth  by, 
let  the  first  hold  his  peace.  For  ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by  one,  that 
all  may  learn,  and  all  may  be  comforted.  And  the  spirits  of  the 
prophets  are  subject  to  the  prophets.  For  God  is  not  the  Author  oi 
confusion,  but  of  peace,  as  in  all  Churches  of  the  saints.  Let  your 
women  keep  silence  in  the  Churches  :  for  it  is  not  permitted  unto 
them  to  speak ;  but  they  are  commanded  to  be  under  obedience,  as 
also  saith  the  Law.  And  if  they  will  learn  anything,  let  them  ask 
their  husbands  at  home  :  for  it  is  a  shame  for  women  to  speak  in 
the  Church.  What  ?  came  the  word  of  God  out  from  you  ?  or  came 
it  unto  you  only?  If  any  man  think  himself  to  be  a  prophet,  or 
spiritual,  let  him  acknowledge  that  the  things  that  I  write  unto  you 
are  the  commandments  of  the  Lord.  But  if  any  man  be  ignorant,  let 
him  be  ignorant.  Wherefore,  brethren,  covet  to  prophesy,  and  forbid 
not  to  speak  with  tongues.  Let  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in 
order." — I  Cor.  xiv.  1-40. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

SPIRITUAL   GIFTS  AND  PUBLIC   WORSHIP. 

IN  the  first  twenty-five  verses  of  this  chapter  Paul 
gives  his  estimate  of  the  comparative  value  of  the 
two  chief  spiritual  gifts:  speaking  with  tongues  and 
prophesying ;  in  the  latter  half  of  the  chapter  he  lays 
down  certain  rules  which  were  to  guide  the  exercise  of 
these  gifts  and  certain  principles  on  which  all  the  wor- 
ship and  public  services  of  the  Church  should  proceed. 
A  difficulty,  however,  meets  us  at  the  outset.  We 
have  no  opportunity  of  observing  these  gifts  in  exercise, 
and  cannot  readily  understand  them.  With  prophecy 
indeed  there  need  be  no  great  difficulty.  Prophesying 
is  speaking  for  God,  whether  the  utterance  regards 
present  or  future  matters.  When  Moses  complained 
that  he  had  no  gift  of  utterance,  God  said,  "  Aaron  shall 
be  thy  prophet ; "  that  is,  shall  speak  for  thee,  or  be  thy 
spokesman.  Prediction  is  not  necessarily  any  part  of 
the  prophet's  function.  It  may  be  so,  and  often  it 
was  so,  but  a  man  might  be  a  prophet  who  had  no 
revelation  of  the  future.  In  the  sense  in  which  Paul 
uses  the  word,  a  prophet  was  "  an  inspired  teacher  and 
exhorter  who  revealed  to  men  the  secrets  of  God's  will 
and  word  and  the  secrets  of  their  own  hearts  for  the 
purpose  of  conversion  and  edification."  The  function 
of  the  prophet  is  indicated  in  the  third  vertie  :  "  He  that 


/ 


314     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

prophesieth  speaketh  for  edification,  and  exhortation, 
and  comfort ; "  and  still  further  in  the  twenty-fourth 
and  twenty-fifth  verses,  where  the  results  of  prophesy- 
ing are  described  in  terms  precisely  such  as  we  should 
use  to  describe  the  results  of  efficacious  preaching. 
The  hearer  is  "convinced,"  is  conscious  in  himself  that 
the  words  spoken  are  shedding  light  and  carrying 
conviction  into  the  recesses  of  his  heart.  The  gift  of 
prophecy,  then,  was  the  endowment  which  enabled  a 
Christian  to  speak  so  as  to  bring  the  mind  and  spirit 
of  the  hearer  into  touch  with  God. 

But  the  gift  of  tongues  is  involved  in  greater  obscurity. 
On  its  first  occurrence,  as  recorded  in  the  book  of  Acts, 
it  would  seem  to  have  been  the  gift  of  speaking  in 
foreign  languages.  We  are  told  that  the  strangers 
from  Asia  Minor,  Parthia,  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea, 
Africa,  and  Italy,  when  they  heard  the  disciples  speak- 
ing, recognised  that  they  were  speaking  intelligible 
languages.  One  man  was  attracted  by  the  sound  of 
his  native  Arabic  ;  another  heard  the  familiar  Latin ;  a 
third  for  the  first  time  in  Jerusalem  heard  a  Jew 
speaking  the  language  he  was  accustomed  to  hear  on 
the  banks  of  the  Nile.  Naturally  they  were  confounded 
by  the  circumstance,  "  every  man  hearing,"  as  it  is  said, 
"  his  own  language,  the  tongue  wherein  he  wa?  born." 
It  would  certainly  seem  probable,  therefore,  that,  whether 
the  gift  afterwards  changed  its  character  or  not,  it  was 
originally  the  power  of  speaking  in  a  foreign  language 
so  as  to  be  intelligible  to  any  one  who  understood  that 
language. 

This  gift  was  of  course  communicated,  not  as  a 
permanent  acquisition,  to  fit  men  to  preach  the  Gospel 
in  foreign  countries,  but  merely  as  a  temporary  impulse 
to  utter  wx)rds  which  to  themselves  had  no  meaning.    All 


xiv.i-40.]  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.   315 

spiritual  gifts  seem  to  have  been  inconstant  in  their  '' 
influence.  Paul  had  the  gift  of  healing,  and  yet  he  "  left 
Trophimus  at  Mile  turn  sick;"  his  dear  friend  Epaphroditus 
was  sick  nigh  unto  death  without  Paul  being  able 
to  help  him ;  and  when  Timothy  was  unwell,  he  did 
not  cure  him  by  miracle,  but  by  a  very  commonplace 
prescription.  So,  too,  when  a  man  by  study  and  practice 
acquires  the  use  of  a  foreign  tongue,  he  has  command 
of  that  language  so  long  as  memory  lives  and  for  all 
purposes  ;  but  this  "  gift  of  tongues  "  was  only  available  [/ 
*'  as  the  Spirit  gave  utterance  "  to  each,  and  failed  to 
communicate  a  constant  and  complete  command  of  the 
language.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  therefore  that  this 
gift  was  bestowed  in  order  to  enable  men  more  easily 
to  proclaim  the  Gospel  to  all  races.  And  at  no  period 
of  the  world's  history  was  such  a  gift  less  needed,  Greek  / 
and  Latin  being  very  generally  understood  throughout 
the  Roman  world.  Perhaps  more  persons  grew  up 
bilingual  in  that  day  than  at  any  other  time. 

If  then  this  gift  was  intermittent  and  did  not  qualify 
its  possessor  to  use  a  foreign  language  for  the  ordinary 
purposes  of  life  or  for  preaching  the  Gospel,  what  was 
its  use  ?  It  served  the  same  purpose  as  other  miracles  ; 
it  made  visible  and  called  attention  to  the  entrance  of 
new  powers  into  human  nature.  As  Paul  says,  it  was 
^'  for  them  that  believe  not,  not  for  them  that  believe." 
It  was  meant  to  excite  inquiry,  not  to  instruct  the  mind 
of  the  Christian.  It  produced  conviction  that  among 
the  followers  of  Christ  new  powers  were  at  work.  The 
evidence  of  this  took  a  shape  which  seemed  to  intimate 
that  the  religion  of  Christ  was  suitable  for  every  race 
of  mankind.  This  gift  of  tongues  seemed  to  claim  all 
nations  as  the  object  of  Christ's  work.  The  most  remote 
and   insignificant  tribe   was   accessible    to    Him.     He 


3i6     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

knew  their    language,   suited    Himself   to    their    pecu- 
liarities, and  claimed  kindred  with  them. 

It  must,  however,  be  said  that  the  common  opinion  of 
scholars  is  that  the  gift  of  tongues  did  not  consist  in 
ability  to  speak  a  foreign  language  even  temporarily, 

\  but  in  an  exalted  frame  of  mind  which  found  expres- 
sion in  sounds  or  words  belonging  to  no  human  language. 
What  was  thus  uttered  has  been  compared  to  the 
"  merry,  unmeaning  shouts  of  boyhood,  getting  rid  of 
exuberant  life,  uttering  in  sounds  a  joy  for  which  man- 
hood has  no  words."  These  ecstatic  cries  or  exclamations 
were  not  always  understood  either  by  the  person  uttering 
them,  or  by  any  one  else,  so  that  there  was  always  a 
risk  of  such  utterances  being  considered  either  as  the 
ravings  of  lunatics,  or,  as  in  the  first  instance,  the 
thick  and  inarticulate  mutterings  of  drunkards.  But 
sometimes    there   was  present  a   person    in    the  "same 

u  key  of  feeling  whose  spirit  vibrated  to  the  note  struck 
by  the  speaker,  and  who  was  able  to  render  his 
inarticulate  sounds  into  intelligible  speech.  For  as 
music  can  only  be  interpreted  by  one  who  has  a  feeling 
for  music,  and  as  the  inarticulate  language  of  tears,  or 
sighs,  or  groans  can  be  comprehended  by  a  sympathetic 
soul,  so  the  tongues  could  be  interpreted  by  those  whose 
spiritual  state  corresponded  to  that  of  the  gifted  person. 
At  various  periods  of  the  Church's  history  these 
manifestations  have  been  reproduced.  The  Montanists 
of  the  early  Church,  the  Camisards  of  France  at  the 
close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  the  Irvingites 
of  our  own  country  claimed  that  they  possessed  similar 
gifts.  Probably  all  such  manifestations  are  due  to 
violent  nervous  agitation.  The  early  Quakers  showed 
their  wisdom  in  treating  all  physical  manifestations 
as  physical. 


xiv.  I-40.]  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.   317 

Comparing  these  two  gifts^  prophecy  and  speaking 
with  tongues,  Paul  very  decidedly  gives  the  preference 
to  the  former,  and  this  mainly  on  the  score  of  its 
greater  utility.  It  often  happened  that  when  one  of 
the  Christians  spoke  in  tongues  there  was  no  one 
present  who  could  interpret.  However  exalted  the 
man's  own  spirit  might  be,  the  congregation  could 
derive  no  benefit  from  his  utterances.  And  if  a  number 
of  persons  spoke  at  once,  as  they  seemed  to  do  in 
Corinth,  on  the  pretext  that  they  could  not  control 
themselves,  any  unbeliever  who  came  in  and  heard 
this  Babel  of  sound  would  naturally  conclude,  as  Paul 
says,  that  he  had  stumbled  into  a  ward  of  lunatics. 
Such  disorder  must  not  be.  If  there  were  no  one 
present  who  could  interpret  what  the  speakers  with 
tongues  were  saying,  they  must  be  silent.  Apart  from 
interpretation  speaking  with  tongues  was  mere  noise, 
the  blare  of  a  trumpet  sounded  by  one  v/ho  did  not 
know  one  call  from  another,  and  which  was  mere 
unintelligible  sound.  Prophesying  was  not  liable  to 
these  abuses.  All  understood  it,  and  could  learn  some- 
thing from  it. 

From  this  preference  shown  by  Paul  for  the  less 
showy  but  more  useful  gift,  vve  may  gather  that  to 
make  public  worship  the  occasion  of  self-display  or 
sensational  exhibitions  is  to  degrade  it.  This  is  a 
hint  for  the  pulpit  rather  than  for  the  pew.  Preachers 
must  resist  the  temptation  to  preach  for  effect,  to  make 
a  sensation,  to  produce  fine  sermons.  The  desire  to 
be  recognised  as  able  to  move  men,  to  say  things 
smartly,  to  put  the  truth  freshly,  to  be  eloquent,  or  to 
be  sensible  is  always  striving  against  the  simple-minded 
purpose  of  edifying  Christ's  people.  Worshippers  as 
well  as  preachers  may,  however,  be  so  tempted.     They 


3i8     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

may  sing  with  a  gratified  sense  of  exhibiting  a  good 
voice.  They  may  find  greater  pleasure  in  what  is 
sensational  in  worship  than  in  what  is  simple  and 
intelligible. 

Again,  we  here  see  that  worship  in  which  the  under- 
standing bears  no  part  receives  no  countenance  from 
Paul.  "  I  will  pray  with  the  spirit ;  I  will  pray  with 
the  understanding  also."  Where  the  prayers  of  the 
Church  are  in  an  unknown  tongue,  such  as  Latin, 
the  worshipper  may  indeed  pray  with  the  spirit,  and 
may  be  edified  thereby,  but  his  worship  would  be 
better  did  he  pray  with  the  understanding  also.  Music 
unaccompanied  by  words  induces  in  some  tempera- 
ments an  impressible  condition  which  has  an  appearance 
of  devoutness  and  probably  something  of  the  reality ; 
but  such  devoutness  is  apt  to  be  either  hazy  or  senti- 
mental or  both,  unless  by  the  help  of  accompanying 
words  the  understanding  goes  hand  in  hand  with 
feeling. 

No  countenance  can  be  found  in  this  chapter  to  the 
idea  that  worship  should  exclude  preaching  and  becomiC 
the  sole  purpose  of  the  assembling  together  of  Christian 
people.  Som.e  temperaments  incline  towards  worship, 
but  resent  being  preached  to  or  instructed.  The 
reverential  and  serious  feelings  which  are  quickened 
into  life  by  devotional  forms  of  prayer  may  be  scattered 
by  the  buffoonery  or  ineptitudes  of  the  preacher. 
Exasperation,  unbelief,  contempt,  in  the  mind  of  the 
hearer  may  be  the  only  results  achieved  by  some  sermons. 
It  may  occasionally  occur  to  us  that  the  Christian 
world  would  be  very  much  the  better  of  some  years  of 
silence,  and  that  results  which  have  not  been  reached 
by  floods  of  preaching  might  be  attained  if  these  floods 
were  allowed  to  ebb  and  a  period  of  quiet  and  repose 


xiv.  I -40.]  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.   319 

succeed.  Unquestionably  there  is  a  danger  at  present 
of  leading  men  to  suppose  that  religion  is  a  thing 
which  must  be  ceaselessly  talked  about,  and  which 
perhaps  chiefly  consists  of  talk,  so  that  if  one  only 
hears  enough,  and  has  the  right  opinions,  he  may  accept 
himself  as  a  religious  person.  But  it  is  one  thing  to 
say  that  there  is  at  present  too  much  preaching  or  too 
careless  and  unequal  a  distribution  of  preaching,  and 
quite  another  thing  to  say  there  should  be  none. 

Having  given  expression  to  his  preference  for 
prophesying,  Paul  goes  on  to  indicate  the  manner  in 
which  the  public  services  should  be  conducted.  The 
picture  he  draws  is  one  which  finds  no  counterpart 
in  the  greater  modern  Churches.  The  chief  distinction 
between  the  services  of  the  Corinthian  Church  and 
those  we  are  now  familiar  with  is  the  much  greater 
freedom  with  which  in  those  days  the  membership  of 
the  Church  took  part  in  the  service.  "  When  ye  come 
together,  every  one  of  you  hath  a  psalm,  hath  a  doctrine, 
hath  a  tongue,  hath  a  revelation,  hath  an  interpretation." 
Each  member  of  the  congregation  had  something  to 
contribute  for  the  edification  of  the  Church.  The 
experience,  the  thought,  the  gifts,  of  the  individual 
were  made  available  for  the  benefit  of  all.  One  with 
a  natural  aptitude  for  poetry  threw  his  devotional  feeling 
into  a  metrical  form,  and  furnished  the  Church  with 
her  earliest  hymns.  Another  with  innate  exactness 
of  thought  set  some  important  aspect  of  Christian  truth 
so  clearly  before  the  mind  of  the  congregation  that  it 
at  once  took  its  place  as  an  article  of  faith.  Another, 
fresh  from  contact  with  the  world  and  intercourse  with 
unbelieving  and  dissolute  men,  who  had  felt  his  own 
feet  sliding  and  renewed  his  grasp  on  Christ,  entered 
the  meeting  with  the  glow  of  conflict  on  his  face,  and 


320     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

had  eager  words  of  exhortation  to  utter.  And  so 
passed  the  hours  of  meeting,  without  any  fixed  order, 
without  any  appointed  ministry,  without  any  uniformity 
of  service.  And  certainly  the  freshness,  fulness,  and 
variety  of  such  services  were  greatly  to  be  desired 
if  possibly  they  could  be  attained.  We  lose  much  of 
what  would  interest  and  much  that  would  edify  by 
enjoining  silence  upon  the  membership  of  the  Church. 

And  yet,  as  Paul  observes,  there  was  much  to  be 
desired  in  those  Corinthian  services.  Had  there  been 
some  authorized  official  presiding  over  them,  the  abuses 
of  which  this  letter  speaks  could  not  have  arisen. 
To  appeal  to  this  chapter  or  to  any  part  of  this  letter 
in  proof  that  there  should  be  no  distinction  between 
clergy  and  laity  would  be  very  bad  policy.  It  is  indeed 
obvious  that  at  this  time  there  were  neither  elders  nor 
deacons,  bishops  nor  rulers  of  any  kind,  in  the  Church 
of  Corinth ;  but  then  it  is  quite  as  obvious  that  there 
was  great  need  of  them,  and  that  the  want  of  them 
had  given  rise  to  some  scandalous  abuses  and  to  much 
disorder.  The  ideal  condition  would  be  one  in  which 
authority  should  be  lodged  in  certain  elected  office- 
bearers, while  the  faculty  and  gift  of  each  member  in 
some  way  contributed  to  the  good  of  the  whole  Church. 
In  most  Churches  of  our  own  day,  efforts  are  made 
to  utilize  the  Christian  energies  of  their  membership 
in  those  various  charitable  works  which  are  so  neces- 
sary and  so  abundant.  But  probably  we  should  all 
be  the  better  of  a  much  freer  ventilation  of  opinion 
within  the  Church  and  of  listening  to  men  who  have  not 
been  educated  in  any  particular  school  of  theology  and 
hold  their  minds  closely  to  the  realities  of  experience. 

We  cannot  but  ask  in  passing.  What  has  become  of 
all  those  inspired  utterances  with  which  the  Corinthian 


xiv.  1-40.]  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND  PUBLIC  WORSHIP,  321 

Church  from  week  to  week  resounded  ?  Doubtless 
they  entered  into  the  life  of  that  generation  and  fostered 
the  Christian  character  which  so  often  shone  out  on 
the  heathen  world  with  surprising  purity.  Doubtless, 
too,  the  unknown  teachers  of  those  primitive  Churches 
did  m.uch  both  in  the  way  of  suggesting  aspects  of 
truth  to  Paul  and  of  confirming,  and  expounding,  and 
illustrating  his  somewhat  condensed  and  difficult 
teaching.  Had  their  utterances  been  recorded,  many 
obscurities  of  Scripture  might  have  been  removed,  much 
light  must  have  been  reflected  on  the  whole  circle  of 
Christian  truth,  and  w^e  should  have  been  able  to 
define  more  clearly  the  actual  condition  of  the  Christian 
Church.  Shorthand  was  in  common  use  at  that  time 
in  the  Roman  courts,  and  by  its  means  we  are  in 
possession  of  relics  of  that  age  of  much  less  value  than 
the  report  of  one  or  two  of  these  Christian  meetings 
might  have  been.  No  such  report,  however,  is  forth- 
coming. 

V/hile  Paul  abstains  from  appointing  office-bearers 
to  preside  at  their  meetings,  he  is  careful  to  lay  down  ,■ 
two  principles  which  should  regulate  their  procedure.  /^ 
First,  "  let  everything  be  done  decently  and  in  order." 
This  advice  was  greatly  needed  in  a  Church  in  which 
the  public  services  were  sometimes  turned  into  tumul- 
tuous exhibitions  of  rival  gifts,  each  man  trying  to  make 
himself  heard  above  the  din  of  voices,  one  speaking 
with  tongues,  another  singing  a  hymn,  a  third  loudly 
addressing  the  congregation,  so  that  any  stranger  who 
might  be  attracted  by  the  noise  and  step  into  the 
house  could  think  this  Christian  meeting  nothing  else 
than  Bedlam  broke  loose.  Above  all  things,  then,  says 
Paul,  conduct  your  meetings  in  a  seemly  fashion. 
Observe  the  rules  of  common   decency  and  crder.     1 

2£ 


n/ 


322     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

do  not  prescribe  any  particular  forms  you  must  observe 
nor  any  special  order  you  must  follow  in  your  services. 
I  do  not  pronounce  what  portion  of  time  should  be 
devoted  to  prayer  nor  what  to  praise  or  exhortation  ; 
nor  do  I  require  that  you  should  in  all  cases  begin 
your  service  in  the  same  stereotyped  manner  and  carry 
it  through  in  the  same  routine.  Your  services  must 
vary  both  in  form  and  in  substance  from  week  to  week 
according  to  the  equipment  of  the  individual  members 
of  your  Church  ;  sometimes  there  may  be  many  who 
wish  to  exhort,  sometimes  there  may  be  none.  But 
in  all  this  freedom  and  variety,  spontaneity  must  not 
run  into  obtrusiveness,  and  variety  must  be  saved  from 
disorder. 

The  other  general  principle  Paul  lays  down  in  the 
words,  ^'Let  all  things  be  done  unto  edifying."  Let 
each  use  his  gift  for  the  good  of  the  congregation. 
Keep  the  great  end  of  your  meetings  in  view,  and  you 
need  no  formal  rubrics.  If  extempore  prayer  is  found 
inspiring,  use  it;  if  the  old  liturgy  of  the  synagogue 
is  preferred,  retain  its  service ;  if  both  have  advantages, 
elnploy  both.  Judge  your  methods  by  their  bearing 
on  the  spiritual  life  of  your  members.  Make  no  boast 
of  your  aesthetic  worship,  your  irreproachable  liturgy, 
your  melting  music,  if  these  things  do  not  result  in 
a  more  loyal  service  of  Christ.  Do  not  pique  your- 
selves on  your  puritanic  simplicity  of  worship  and  the 
absence  of  all  that  is  not  spiritual  if  this  bareness  and 
simplicity  do  not  bring  you  more  directly  into  the 
presence  of  your  Lord.  It  matters  little  what  we  eat 
or  in  what  shape  it  is  served  if  we  are  the  better  for 
our  food  and  are  maintained  in  health  and  vigour.  It 
matters  little  whether  the  vehicle  in  which  we  travel 
be  highly  decorated  or  plain  so  long  as  it   brings  us 


xiv.  1-40.]  SPIRITUAL  GIFTS  AND  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.   323 

safely  to  our  destination.  Are  we  the  better  for  our 
services  ?  Is  it  our  chief  aim  in  them  to  receive  and 
promote  an  earnest  rehgious  spirit  and  a  sincere 
service  of  Christ  ? 

It  might  be  difficult  to  say  v^'hether  the  somewhat 
selfish  ambition  of  those  Corinthians  to  secure  the 
surprising  gifts  of  the  Spirit  or  our  own  torpid 
indifference  and  lack  of  expectation  is  less  to  be 
commended.  Certainly  every  one  who  attaches  him- 
self to  Christ  ought  to  indulge  in  great  expectations. 
Through  Christ  lies  the  way  out  from  the  poverty  and 
futility  that  oppress  our  spiritual  history.  From  Him 
we  may,  however  falsely  modest  we  are,  expect  at  least 
His  own  Spirit.  And  in  this  "  least "  there  is  promise 
of  all.  They  who  sincerely  attach  themselves  to  Christ 
cannot  fail  to  end  by  being  like  Him.  But  lack  of 
expectation  is  fatal  to  the  Christian.  If  we  expect 
nothing  or  very  Httle  from  Christ,  we  might  as  well  not 
be  Christians.  If  He  does  not  become  to  us  a  second 
conscience,  ever  present  in  us  to  warn  against  sin 
and  offer  opposing  inducements,  we  might  as  well  call 
ourselves  by  any  other  name.  His  power  is  exerted 
now  not  to  excite  to  unwonted  exhibitions  of  abnormal 
faculties,  but  to  promote  in  us  all  that  is  most  stable 
and  substantial  in  character.  And  the  fact  is  that  they 
who  hunger  after  righteousness  are  filled.  They  who 
expect  that  Christ  will  help  them  to  become  like  Him- 
self do  become  like  Him.  All  grace  is  attainable. 
Nothing  but  unbelief  shuts  us  out  from  it.  Do  not 
be  content  until  you  find  in  Christ  more  abundant  life, 
until  you  have  as  clear  evidence  as  these  Corinthians 
had  that  a  new  spirit  of  power  dwells  within  you. 
He  Himself  encourages  you  to  expect  this.  It  is  to 
receive   this   He  calls  us   to  Him ;  and  if  we  are  not 


324     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 

expecting  this  spirit  of  life,  it  is  because  we  do  not 
understand  or  do  not  believe  Him.  He  has  come  to 
give  us  the  best  God  has  to  give,  and  the  best  is  like- 
ness to  Himself.  He  has  come  to  save  our  life  from 
being  a  folly  and  a  failure,  and  He  saves  it  by  filling 
it  with  His  own  Spirit.  All  fulness  resides  in  Him  ; 
in  Him  Divine  resource  is  made  available  for  human 
needs  :  but  the  distribution  is  moral,  not  mechanical ; 
that  is  to  say,  it  depends  on  your  willingness  to  receive, 
on  your  expectation  of  good,  on  your  true  personal 
attachment  to  Christ  in  spirit  and  in  will. 


THE    RESURRECTION   OF   CHRIST, 


"Moreover,  brethren,  I  declare  unto  you  the  Gospel  which  I 
preached  unto  you,  which  also  ye  have  received,  and  wherein  ye 
stand  ;  by  which  also  ye  are  saved,  if  ye  keep  in  memory  what  I 
preached  unto  you,  unless  ye  have  believed  in  vain.  For  I  delivered 
unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  I  also  received,  how  that  Christ  died 
for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures  ;  and  that  He  was  buried,  and 
that  He  rose  again  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures :  and 
that  He  was  seen  of  Cephas,  then  of  the  twelve  :  after  that,  He  was 
seen  of  above  five  hundred  brethren  at  once;  of  whom  the  greater 
part  remain  unto  this  present,  but  some  are  fallen  asleep.  After  that 
He  was  seen  of  James  ;  then  of  all  the  Apostles.  And  last  of  all  He 
was  seen  of  me  also,  as  of  one  born  out  of  due  time.  For  I  am  the 
least  of  the  Apostles,  that  am  not  meet  to  be  calle'i  an  apostle,  be- 
cause I  persecuted  the  Church  of  God.  But  by  the  grace  of  God  I  am 
what  I  am  :  and  His  grace  which  was  bestowed  upon  me  was  not  in 
vain;  but  I  laboured  more  abundantl}'  than  they  all  :  yet  not  I,  but 
the  grace  of  God  which  was  with  me.  Therefore  whether  it  were  I 
or  they,  so  we  preach,  and  so  ye  believed.  Now  if  Christ  be  preached 
that  He  rose  from  the  dead,  how  say  some  among  you  that  there  is 
no  resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  But  if  there  be  no  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  then  is  Christ  not  risen  :  and  if  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is 
our  preaching  vain,  and  your  faith  is  also  vain.  Yea,  and  we  are 
found  false  witnesses  of  God ;  because  we  have  testified  of  God  that 
He  raised  up  Christ :  whom  He  raised  not  up,  if  so  be  that  the  dead 
rise  not.  For  if  the  dead  rise  not,  then  is  not  Christ  raised  :  and  if 
Christ  be  not  raised,  your  faith  is  vain ;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins." — 

I   CoR.  XV.  I-I7. 


XXI. 

THE  RESURRECTION  OF  CHRIST. 
I.  Its  Place  in  the  Christian  Creed. 

PAUL  having  now  settled  the  minor  questions  of 
order  in  public  worship,  marriage,  intercourse 
with  the  heathen,  and  the  other  various  difficulties 
which  were  distracting  the  Corinthian  Church,  turns  at 
last  to  a  matter  of  prime  importance  and  perennial 
interest :  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  This  great 
subject  he  handles  not  in  the  abstract,  but  with  a  view 
to  the  particular  attitude  and  beliefs  of  the  Corinthians. 
Some  of  them  said  broadly,  "There  is  no  resurrection 
of  the  dead,"  although  apparently  they  had  no  intention 
of  denying  that  Christ  had  risen.  Accordingly  Paul 
proceeds  to  show  them  that  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
and  that  of  His  followers  hang  together,  that  the  re- 
surrection of  Christ  is  essential  to  the  Christian  creed, 
that  it  is  amply  attested,  and  that  although  great  diffi- 
culties surround  the  subject,  making  it  impossible  to 
conceive  what  the  risen  body  will  be,  yet  the  resurrection 
of  the  body  is  to  be  looked  forward  to  with  confident 
hope. 

It  will  be  most  convenient  to  consider  first  the 
place  which  the  resurrection  of  Christ  holds  in  the 
Christian  creed;  but  that  we  may  follow  Paul's  argument 
and  appreciate  its  force,  it  will  be  necessary  to  make 


328     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 

clear  to  our  own  mind  what  he  meant  by  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ  and  what  position  the  Corinthians  sought 
to  maintain. 

First,  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ  Paul  meant 
His  rising  from  the  grave  with  a  body  glorified  or 
made  fit  for  the  new  and  heavenly  life  He  had  entered. 
Paul  did  not  believe  that  the  body  he  saw  on  the  road 
to  Damascus  was  the  very  body  which  had  hung  upon 
the  cross,  made  of  the  same  material,  subject  to  the 
same  conditions.  He  affirms  in  this  chapter  that  flesh 
and  blood,  a  natural  body,  cannot  enter  upon  the 
heavenly  life.  It  must  pass  through  a  process  which 
entirely  alters  its  material.  Paul  had  seen  bodies  con- 
sumed to  ashes,  and  he  knew  that  the  substance  of 
these  bodies  could  not  be  recovered.  He  was  aware 
that  the  material  of  the  human  body  is  dissolved,  and 
is  by  the  processes  of  nature  used  for  the  constructing 
of  the  bodies  of  fishes,  wild  beasts,  birds;  that  as  the 
body  was  sustained  in  life  by  the  produce  of  the  earth, 
js>o  in  death  it  is  mingled  with  the  earth  again,  giving 
f  back  to  earth  what  it  had  received.  The  arguments 
]  therefore  commonly  urged  against  the  Resurrection  had 
^-^  no  relevancy  against  that  in  which  Paul  believed,  for  it 
was  not  that  very  thing  which  was  buried  which  he 
expected  would  rise  again,  but  a  body  different  in  kind, 
in  material,  and  in  capacity. 

But  yet  Paul  always  speaks  as  if  there  were  some 
connection  between  the  present  and  the  future,  the 
natural  and  the  spiritual,  body.  He  speaks,  too,  of  the 
body  of  Christ  as  the  type  or  specimen  into  the  likeness 
of  which  the  bodies  of  His  people  are  to  be  transformed. 
Now  if  we  conceive,  or  try  to  conceive,  what  passed  in 
that  closed  sepulchre  in  the  garden  of  Joseph,  we  can 
only  suppose  that  the  body  of  flesh  and  blood  which 


XV.]    SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION.    329 


was  taken  down  from  the  cross  and  laid  there  was 
transformed  into  a  spiritual  body  by  a  process  which 
may  be  called  miraculous,  but  which  differed  from  the 
process  which  is  to  operate  in  ourselves  only  by  its 
rapidity.  We  do  not  understand  the  process ;  but  is 
that  the  only  thing  we  do  not  understand  ?  All  along 
the  line  v/hich  marks  off  this  world  from  the  spiritual 
world  mystery  broods  ;  and  the  fact  that  we  do  not 
understand  how  the  body  Christ  had  worn  on  earth 
passed  into  a  body  fit  for  another  kind  of  life  ought 
not  to  prevent  our  believing  that  such  a  transmutation 
can  take  place.  There  are  in  nature  many  forces  of 
which  we  know  nothing,  and  it  may  one  day  appear  to 
us  most  natural  that  the  spirit  should  clothe  itself  with 
a  spiritual  body.  The  connection  between  the  two 
bodies  is  the  persistent  and  identical  spirit  which 
animates  both.  As  the  life  that  is  in  the  body  now 
assimilates  material  and  forms  the  body  to  its  particular 
mould,  so  may  the  spirit  hereafter,  when  ejected  from 
its  present  dwelling,  have  power  to  clothe  itself  with  a 
body  suited  to  its  needs.  Paul  refuses  to  recognise 
any  insuperable  difficulty  here.  The  transmutation  of 
the  earthly  body  of  Christ  into  a  glorified  body  will 
be  repeated  in  the  case  of  many  of  His  followers,  for, 
as  he  says,  "  we  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  all 
be  changed  in  a  moment^  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye." 

Secondly,  we  must  understand  the  position  occupied 
by  those  whom  Paul  addressed  in  this  chapter.  They 
doubted  the  Resurrection;  but  in  that  day,  as  in  our  owr, 
the  Resurrection  w^as  denied  from  two  opposite  points 
of  view.  Materialists,  such  as  the  Scidducees,  believing 
that  mental  and  spiritual  life  are  only  manifestations 
of  physical  life  and  dependent  upon  it,  nevcssarily 
concluded  that  with  the  death  of  the  body  the  whole 


330     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

life  of  the  individual  terminates.  And  it  would  rather 
appear  as  if  the  Corinthians  were  tainted  with  mate- 
riahsm.  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die/' 
can  only  be  the  suggestion  of  the  materialist,  who  be- 
lieves in  no  future  life  of  any  kind. 

But  many  who  opposed  materialism  held  that  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  if  not  impossible,  was  at  all 
events  undesirable.  It  was  the  fashion  to  speak  con- 
temptuously of  the  body.  It  was  branded  as  the  source 
and  seat  of  sin,  as  the  untamed  bullock  which  dragged 
its  yokefellow,  the  soul,  out  of  the  straight  path. 
Philosophers  gave  thanks  to  God  that  He  had  not 
tied  their  spirit  to  an  immortal  body,  and  refused  to 
allow  their  portrait  to  be  taken,  lest  they  should  be 
remembered  and  honoured  by  means  of  their  material 
part.  When  Paul's  teaching  was  accepted  by  such 
persons,  they  laid  great  strtss  on  his  inculcation  of  the 
mystical  or  spiritual  dying  with  Christ  and  rising  again, 
until  they  persuaded  themselves  this  was  all  he  meant 
by  resurrection.  They  declared  that  the  Resurrection 
was  past  already,  and  that  all  believing  men  were 
already  risen  in  Christ.  To  be  free  from  all  connection 
with  matter  was  an  essential  element  in  their  idea  of 
salvation,  and  to  promise  them  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  was  to  offer  them  a  very  doubtful  blessing 
indeed. 

In  our  own  day  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  denied 
both  from  the  materialist  and  from  the  spiritualist  or 
idealist  point  of  view.  It  is  said  that  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  is  an  undoubted  fact  if  by  the  resurrection  it 
be  meant  that  His  spirit  survived  death  and  now  lives 
in  us.  But  the  bodily  resurrection  is  a  thing  of  no 
account.  Not  from  the  risen  body  flows  the  power 
that  has  altered  human  history,  but  from  the  teachings 


XV.]    SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION.    331 

and  life  of  Christ  and  from  His  devotement  of  Himself 
even  unto  death  to  the  interests  of  men.  Christ  lay  in 
His  grave,  and  the  elements  of  His  body  have  passed 
into  the  bosom  of  nature,  as  ours  will  before  long ;  but 
His  spirit  v/as  not  imprisoned  in  the  grave :  it  lives, 
perhaps  in  us.  Statements  to  this  effect  you  may  hear 
or  read  frequently  in  our  day.  And  either  of  two  very 
different  beliefs  may  be  expressed  in  such  language.  It 
may,  on  the  one  hand,  mean  that  the  person  Jesus  is 
individually  extinct,  and  that  although  virtue  still  flows 
from  His  life,  as  from  that  of  every  good  man,  He  is 
Himself  unconscious  of  this  and  of  everything  else,  and 
can  exert  no  new  and  fresh  influence,  such  as  emanates 
from  a  person  presently  alive  and  aware  of  the  exi- 
gencies appealing  to  His  interference.  This  is  plainly 
a  form  of  belief  entirely  different  from  that  of  the 
Apostles,  who  acted  for  a  living  Lord,  to  whom  they 
appealed  and  by  whom  they  were  guided.  Belief  in  a 
dead  Christ,  who  cannot  hear  prayer  and  is  unconscious 
of  our  service,  may  indeed  help  a  man  who  has  nothing 
better  to  help  him ;  but  it  is  not  the  belief  of  the 
Apostles. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  meant  that  although 
the  body  of  Christ  remiained  in  the  tomb,  His  spirit 
survived  death,  and  lives  a  disembodied  but  conscious 
and  powerful  life.  One  of  the  profoundest  German 
critics,  Keim,  has  expressed  himself  to  this  effect.  The 
Apostles,  he  thinks,  did  not  see  the  actual  risen  body 
of  the  Lord  ;  their  visions  of  a  glorified  Jesus  were 
not,  however,  delusive ;  the  appearances  were  not  the 
creations  of  their  own  excitement,  but  were  intentionally 
produced  by  the  Lord  Himself.  Jesus,  it  is  believed^ 
had  actually  passed  into  a  higher  life,  and  was  as  ful^ 
of  consciousness  and   of  power  as    He  had   been  on" 


332     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

earth  ;  and  of  this  glorified  life  in  which  He  was  He  gave 
the  Apostles  assurance  by  these  appearances.  The 
body  of  the  Lord  remained  in  the  tomb  ;  but  these 
appearances  were  intended,  to  use  the  critic's  own 
words,  as  a  kind  of  telegram,  to  assure  them  He  was 
alive.  Had  such  a  sign  of  His  continued  and  glorified 
life  not  been  given,  their  belief  in  Him  as  the  Messiah 
could  not  have  survived  the  death  on  the  cross. 

This  view,  although  erroneous,  can  do  little  harm  to 
experimental  or  practical  Christianity.  The  difference 
between  a  disembodied  spirit  and  a  spiritual  body  is 
really  unappreciable  to  our  present  knowledge.  And 
if  any  one  finds  it  impossible  to  believe  in  the  bodily 
resurrection  of  Christ,  but  easy  to  believe  in  His 
present  life  and  power,  it  would  only  be  mischievous 
to  require  of  him  a  faith  he  cannot  give  in  addition 
to  a  faith  which  brings  him  into  real  fellowship  with 
Christ.  The  main  purpose  of  Christ's  appearances 
was  to  give  to  His  disciples  assurance  of  His  continued 
life  and  power.  If  that  assurance  already  exists,  then 
belief  in  Christ  as  alive  and  supreme  supersedes  the 
use  of  the  usual  stepping-stone  towards  that  belief. 

At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  maintained  that  not  only 
did  the  Apostles  believe  they  saw  the  body  of  Christ, 
by  which  indeed  they  first  of  all  identified  Him,  but 
also  they  were  distinctly  assured  that  the  body  they 
saw  was  not  a  ghost  or  a  telegram,  but  a  veritable  body 
that  could  stand  handling,  and  whose  lips  and  throat 
could  utter  sound^'^esides,  it  is  not  in  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  when  they  saw  this  appearance,  whatever  it 
was,  they  should  not  at  once  go  to  the  sepulchre  and 
see  what  was  there.  And  if  there  they  saw  the  body 
while  in  various  other  places  they  saw  what  seemed  to 
be  the  body,   what  a  world  of  incomprehensible  and 


XV.]    SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION.    333 

mystifying  jugglery  must  they  have  felt  themselves  to 
be  involved  in  ! 

It  is  a  fact  then  that  those  who  knew  most  both 
about  the  body  and  about  the  spirit  of  Jesus  believed 
they  saw  the  body  and  were  encouraged  so  to  believe. 
Besides,  if  we  accept  the  view  that  though  Christ  is 
alive,  His  body  remained  in  the  grave,  we  are  at  once 
confronted  with  the  difficulty  that  Christ's  glorification 
is  not  yet  complete.  j\i  Christ's  body  did  not  partake 
in  His  conquest  over  the  grave,  then  that  conquest  is 
partial  and  incomplete.  Human  nature  both  in  this 
life  and  in  the  life  to  come  is  composed  of  body  and 
spirit;  and  if  Christ  now  sits  at  God's  right  hand  in 
perfected  human  nature,  it  is  not  as  a  disembodied 
spirit,  but  as  a  complete  person  in  a  glorified  body,  we 
must  conceive  of  Him.  No  doubt  it  is  a  spiritual  in- 
fluence which  Christ  now  exerts  upon  His  followers, 
and  their  belief  in  His  risen  life  may  be  independent 
of  any  statements  made  by  the  disciples  concerning 
His  body ;  at  the  same  time,  to  suppose  that  Christ  is 
now  without  a  body  is  to  suppose  that  He  is  imperfect  : 
and  it  maist  also  be  remembered  that  the  primitive 
faith  and  restored  confidence  in  Christ,  to  which  the 
very  existence  of  the  Church  is  due,  were  created  by 
the  sight  of  the  empty  tomb  and  the  glorified  body. 

In  the  face  of  such  chapters  as  this  and  other  pas- 
sages equally  explicit,  modern  believers  in  a  merely 
spiritual  resurrection  have  found  some  difficulty  in 
reconciling  their  views  with  the  statements  of  Paul. 
Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  undertakes  to  show  us  how  this 
may  be  done.  "Not  for  a  moment,"  he  says,  "do  we 
deny  that  in  Paul's  earlier  theology,  and  notably  in 
the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians  and  Corinthians,  the 
physical  and    miraculous   aspect  of  the    Resurrection, 


334     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

both  Christ's  and  the  believer's,  is  prhiiary  and  pre- 
dominant. Not  for  a  moment  do  we  deny  that  to  the 
very  end  of  his  hfe,  after  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
after  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians,  if  he  had  been 
asked  whether  he  held  the  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection 
in  the  physical  and  miiraculous  sense  as  well  as  in  his 
own  spiritual  and  mystical  sense,  he  would  have  replied 
with  entire  conviction  that  he  did.  Very  likely  it  would 
have  been  impossible  to  him  to  imagine  his  theology 
without  it.     But — 

'Below  the  surface  stream,  shallov/  and  light, 
Of  what  we  say  we  feel — below  the  stream, 
As  light,  of  what  we  think  we  feel,  there  flows 
With  noiseless  current  strong,  obscure  and  deep, 
The  central  stream  of  what  we  feel  indeed  ; ' 

and  by  this  alone  are  we  truly  characterised."  This, 
however,  is  not  to  interpret  an  author,  but  to  make 
him  a  mere  nose  of  wax  that  can  be  worked  into  any 
convenient  shape.  Probably  Paul  understood  his  own 
theology  quite  as  well  as  Mr.  Arnold  ;  and,  as  his  critic 
says,  he  considered  the  physical  resurrection  of  Christ 
and  the  believer  an  essential  part  of  it. 

Considering  the  place  which  our  Lord's  risen  body 
had  in  Paul's  conversion,  it  could  not  be  otherwise. 
At  the  very  moment  when  Paul's  whole  system  of 
thougiit  was  in  a  state  of  fusion  the  risen  Lord  was 
pre-eminently  impressed  upon  it.  It  was  through  his 
conviction  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ  that  both  Paul's 
theology  and  his  character  were  once  for  all  radically 
altered.  The  idea  of  a  crucified  Messiah  had  been 
abhorrent  to  him,  and  his  life  was  dedicated  to  the 
extirpation  of  this  vile  heresy  that  sprang  from  the 
Cross.  But  from  the  moment  when  with  his  own  eyes 
he  saw  the  risen  Lord  he  understood,  with  the  rest  of 


XV.]    SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHRIST S  RESURRECTION.    335 

the  disciples,  that  death  was  the  Messiah's  appointed 
path  to  supreme  spiritual  headship.  As  trul}^  in  Paul's 
case  as  in  that  of  the  other  disciples  faith  sprang  from 
the  sight  of  the  glorified  Christ ;  and  to  none  could 
it  be  so  inevitable  as  to  him  to  say,  ''If  Christ  be  not 
risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain,  and  3'our  faith  is  also 
vain."  From  the  first  Paul  had  put  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  forward  as  an  essential  and  fundamental  part 
of  the  Gospel  he  had  received,  and  which  he  was 
accustomed  to  deliver. 

And,  generally  speaking,  this  place  is  assigned  to  it 
both  by  believers  and  by  unbelievers.  It  is  recognised 
that  it  was  the  belief  in  the  Resurrection  which  first 
revived  the  hopes  of  Christ's  followers  and  drew  them 
together  to  wait  for  the  promise  of  His  Spirit.  It  is 
recognised  that  whether  the  Resurrection  be  a  fact  or 
no,  the  Cliurch  of  Christ  was  founded  on  the  belief 
that  it  had  taken  place,  so  that  if  that  had  been 
removed  the  Church  could  ijot  have  been.  This  is 
affirmed  as  decisively  by  unbelievers  as  by  believers. 
The  great  leader  of  modern  unbelief  (Strauss)  declares 
that  the  Resurrection  is  "  the  centre  of  the  centre,  the 
real  heart  of  Christianity  as  it  has  been  until  now;" 
while  one  of  his  ablest  opponents  says,  "  The  Resur- 
rection created  the  Church,  the  risen  Christ  made 
Christianity;  and  even  now  the  Christian  faith  stands' 
or  falls  Vv'ith  Him.  ...  If  it  be  true  that  no  living 
Christ  ever  issued  from  the  tomb  of  Joseph,  then  that 
tomb  becomes  the  grave,  not  of  a  man,  but  of  a  religion/ 
with  all  the  hopes  built  on  it  and  all  the  splendid 
enthusiasms  it  has  inspired  "  (Fairbairn). 

It    is    not   difficult   to  perceive  what  it    was   in  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  v^-hich  gave  it  this  importance. 

I.  First,    it   was  the  convincing  proof  that   Christ's 


336     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

words  were  true,  and  that  He  was  what  He  had  claimed 
to  be.  He  Himself  had  on  more  occasions  than  one 
hinted  that  such  proof  was  to  be  given.  ^*  Destroy  this 
temple,"  He  said,  "  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it 
again."  The  sign  which  was  to  be  given,  notwithstand- 
ing His  habitual  refusal  to  yield  to  the  Jewish  craving 
for  miracle,  was  the  sign  of  the  prophet  Jonah.  As 
he  had  been  thrown  out  and  lost  for  three  days  and 
nights,  but  had  thereby  only  been  forwarded  in  his 
mission,  so  our  Lord  was  to  be  thrown  out  as 
endangering  the  ship,  but  was  to  rise  again  to  fuller 
and  more  perfect  efficiency.  In  order  that  His  claim 
to  be  the  Messiah  might  be  understood,  it  was  necessary 
that  He  should  die ;  but  in  order  that  it  might  be 
believed,  it  was  needful  that  He  should  rise.  Had  He 
not  died.  His  followers  would  have  continued  to  expect 
a  reign  of  earthly  power ;  His  death  showed  them  no 
such  reign  could  be,  and  convinced  them  His  spiritual 
power  sprang  out  of  apparent  weakness.  But  had  He 
not  risen  again,  all  their  hopes  would  have  been  blighted. 
All  who  had  believed  in  Him  would  have  joined  with 
the  Emmaus  disciples  in  their  hopeless  cry,  "  We  thought 
that  this  had  been  He  who  should  have  redeemed 
Israel." 

It  was  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  then,  which 
convinced  His  disciples  that  His  words  had  been  true, 
that  He  was  what  He  had  claimed  to  be,  and  that  He 
was  not  mistaken  regarding  His  own  person,  His  work, 
His  relation  to  the  Father,  the  prospects  of  Himself  and 
His  people.  This  was  the  answer  given  by  God  to  the 
doubts,  and  calumnies,  and  accusations  of  men.  Jesus 
at  the  last  had  stood  alone,  unsupported  by  one  favour- 
ing voice.  His  own  disciples  forsook  Him,  and  in  their 
bewilderment  knew   not  what  to   think.      Those  who 


XV.]    SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION.    337 

considered  Him  a  dangerous  and  seditious  person  or 
at  best  a  crazed  enthusiast  found  themselves  backed 
by  the  voice  of  the  people  and  urged  to  extreme 
measures,  with  none  to  remonstrate  save  the  heathen 
judge,  none  to  pity  save  a  few  women.  This  delusion, 
they  congratulated  themselves,  was  stamped  out.  And 
stamped  out  it  would  have  been  but  for  the  Resurrection. 
"  Then  it  was  seen  that  while  the  world  had  scorned 
the  Son  of  God,  the  Father  had  been  watching  over 
Him  with  unceasing  love;  that  while  the  world  had 
placed  Him  at  its  bar  as  a  malefactor  and  blasphemer, 
the  Father  had  been  making  ready  for  Him  a  seat  at 
His  own  right  hand  ;  that  while  the  world  nailed  Him 
to  the  cross,  the  Father  had  been  preparing  for  Him 
*  many  crowns  '  and  a  name  that  is  above  every  name ; 
that  while  the  world  had  gone  to  the  grave  in  the 
garden,  setting  a  watch  and  sealing  the  stone,  and  had 
then  returned  to  its  feasting  and  merriment,  because 
the  Preacher  of  righteousness  was  no  longer  there  to 
trouble  it,  the  Father  had  waited  for  the  third  morning 
in  order  to  bring  Him  forth  in  triumph  from  the 
grave."  ^ 

This  contrast  between  the  treatment  Christ  received 
at  the  hands  of  men  and  His  justification  by  the  Father 
in  the  Resurrection  fills  and  colours  all  the  addresses 
delivered  by  the  Apostles  to  the  people  in  the  imme- 
diately succeeding  days.  They  evidently  accepted  the 
Resurrection  as  God's  great  attestation  to  the  person 
and  work  of  Christ.  It  changed  their  own  thoughts 
about  Him,  and  they  expected  it  would  change  the 
thoughts  of  other  men.  They  saw  now  that  His  death 
was  one  of  the  necessary  steps  in  His  career,  one  of 
the  essential  parts  of  the  work  He  had  come  to  do. 

'  Milligan,  The  Resurrection  of  our  Lord,  p.  150. 

22 


3^,8     THE  FIRST  EFISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

Had  Christ  not  been  raised,  they  would  have  thought 
Him  weak  and  mistaken  as  other  men.  The  beaut}^ 
and  promise  of  His  words  which  had  so  attracted  them 
would  now  have  seemed  delusive  and  unbearable.  But 
in  the  light  of  the  Resurrection  they  saw  that  the  Christ 
"  ought  to  have  suffered  these  things  and  so  to  enter 
His  glory."  They  could  now  confidently  say,  "  He 
died  for  our  sins,  and  was  raised  again  for  our  justi- 
fication." 

2.  Secondly,  the  resurrection  of  Christ  occupies  a 
fundamental  place  in  the  Christian  creed,  because  by 
it  there  is  disclosed  a  real  and  close  connection  between 
this  world  and  the  unseen,  eternal  world.  There  is 
no  need  now  of  argument  to  prove  a  life  beyond ;  here 
is  one  who  is  in  it.  For  the  resurrection  of  Christ  was 
not  a  return  to  this  life,  to  its  wants,  to  its  limitations, 
to  its  inevitable  close ;  but  it  was  a  resurrection  to  a 
life  for  ever  beyond  death.  Neither  was  it  a  discarding 
of  humanity  on  Christ's  part,  a  cessation  of  His  accept- 
ance of  human  conditions,  a  rising  to  some  kind  of 
existence  to  which  man  has  no  access.  On  the  contrary, 
it  was  because  He  continued  truly  human  that  in 
human  body  and  with  human  soul  He  rose  to  veritable 
human  life  beyond  the  grave.  If  Jesus  rose  from  the 
dead,  then  the  world  into  which  He  is  gone  is  a  real 
world,  in  which  men  can  live  more  fully  than  they  live 
here.  If  He  rose  from  the  dead,  then  there  is  an 
unseen  Spirit  mightier  than  the  strongest  material 
powers,  a  God  who  is  seeking  to  bring  us  out  of  ail 
evil  into  an  eternally  happy  condition.  Quite  reason- 
ably is  death  invested  with  a  certain  majesty,  if  not 
terror,  as  the  mightiest  of  physical  things.  There  may 
be  greater  evils ;  but  they  do  not  alfect  all  men,  but  only 
some,  or  they  debar  men  from  certain  enjoyments  and 


XV.]    SIGNIFICANCE  OF  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION.     339 

a  certain  kind  of  life,  but  not  from  all.  But  death 
shuts  men  out  from  everything  with  which  they  have 
here  to  do,  and  launches  them  into  a  condition  of  which 
they  know  absolutely  nothing.  Any  one  who  conquers 
death  and  scatters  its  mystery,  who  shows  in  his  own 
person  that  it  is  innocuous,  and  that  it  actually  betters 
our  condition,  brings  us  light  that  reaches  us  from  no 
other  quarter.  And  He  who  shows  this  superiority 
over  death  in  virtue  of  a  moral  superiority,  and  uses  it 
for  the  furtherance  of  the  highest  spiritual  ends,  shows 
a  command  over  the  whole  affairs  of  men  which  makes 
it  easy  to  believe  He  can  guide  us  into  a  condition  like 
His  own.  As  Peter  affirms,  it  is  '*  by  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead  we  are  begotten  again 
unto  a  lively  hope." 

3.  For,  lastly,  it  is  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ  we 
see  at  once  the  norm  or  type  of  our  life  here  and  of  our 
destiny  hereafter.  Holiness  and  immortahty  are  two 
aspects,  two  manifestations,  of  the  Divine  life  we  receive 
from  Christ.  They  are  inseparable  the  one  from  the 
other.  His  Spirit  is  the  source  of  both.  ^'  If  the  Spirit 
that  raised  up  the  Lord  Jesus  from  the  dead  dwelleth 
in  you,  He  that  raised  up  Christ  Jesus  from  the  dead 
shall  also  quicken  your  mortal  bodies  through  His 
Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you."  If  we  have  now  the  one 
evidence  of  His  indweUing  in  us,  we  shall  one  day  have 
the  other.  The  hope  that  should  uplift  and  purify 
every  part  of  the  Christian's  character  is  a  hope  which 
is  shadowy,  unreal,  inoperative,  in  those  who  merely 
know  about  Christ  and  His  work  ;  it  becomes  a  living 
hope,  full  of  immortality,  in  all  who  are  now  actually 
drawing  their  life  from  Christ,  who  have  their  life  truly 
hid  with  Christ  in  God,  who  are  in  heart  and  will  one 
with  the  Most  High,  in  whom  is  all  life. 


340    THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 


Therefore  does  Paul  so  continually  hold  up  to  us 
the  risen  life  of  Christ  as  that  to  which  we  are  to  be 
conformed.  We  are  to  rise  with  Him  to  newness  of 
life.  As  Christ  has  done  with  death,  having  died  to  sin 
once,  so  must  His  people  be  dead  to  sin  and  live  to 
God  with  Him.  Sometimes  in  weariness  or  dejection 
one  feels  as  if  he  had  seen  the  best  of  everything 
experienced  all  he  can  experience,  and  must  now  simply 
endure  life  ;  he  sees  no  prospect  of  anything  fresh,  or 
attractive,  or  reviving.  But  this  is  not  because  he  has 
exhausted  life,  but  because  he  has  not  begun  it.  To 
the  "children  of  the  Resurrection/'  who  have  followed 
Christ  in  His  path  to  hfe  by  renouncing  sin,  and 
conquering  self,  and  giving  themselves  to  God,  there 
is  a  springing  life  in  their  own  soul  that  renews  hope 
and  energy. 


XXII. 

THE  RESURRECTION  OF  CHRIST  {continued). 

II.  Its  Proof. 

PAUL,  having  affirmed  that  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  is  an  essential  element  of  the  Gospel,  pro- 
ceeds to  sketch  the  evidence  for  the  fact.  That 
evidence  mainly  consists  in  the  attestation  of  those 
who  at  various  times  and  in  various  places  and  circum- 
stances had  seen  the  Lord  after  His  death.  Other 
evidence  there  is,  as  Paul  indicates.  In  certain  unspeci- 
fied passages  of  the  Old  Testan.ent  he  thinks  a  dis- 
cerning reader  might  have  found  sufficient  intimation 
that  when  the  Messiah  came  He  would  both  die  and 
rise  again.  But  as  he  himself  had  not  at  first  recog- 
nised these  intimations  in  the  Old  Testament,  he  does 
not  press  them  upon  others,  but  appeals  to  the  simple 
fact  that  many  of  those  who  had  been  familiar  with  the 
appearance  of  Christ  while  He  lived  saw  Him  after 
death  alive. 

As  a  preliminary  to  the  positive  evidence  here 
adduced  by  Paul,  it  may  be  remarked  that  we  have  no 
record  of  any  contemporary  denial  of  the  fact,  save 
only  the  story  put  in  the  mouths  of  the  soldiers  by  the 
chief  priests.  Matthew  tells  us  that  it  was  currently 
reported  that  the  soldiers  who  had  been  on  guard  at 
the  sepulchre  were  bribed  by  the  priests  and  elders  to 


342     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 

say  that  the  disciples  had  come  in  the  night  and  stolen 
the  body.  But  whatever  temporary  purpose  they 
fancied  this  might  serve,  the  great  purpose  it  now 
serves  is  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  Resurrection,  for  the 
main  point  is  admitted,  the  tomb  was  empty.  As  for 
the  story  itself,  its  falsehood  must  have  been  apparent  ; 
and  probably  no  one  in  Jerusalem  was  so  simple  as  to 
be  taken  in  by  it.  For,  in  point  of  fact,  the  authorities 
had  taken  steps  to  prevent  this  very  thing.  They  were 
r'^solved  there  should  be  no  tampering  with  the  grave, 
and  accordingly  had  set  their  official  seal  upon  it  and 
}  laced  a  guard  to  watch. 

The  evidence  thus  unintentionally  furnished  by  the 
\\  raithorities  is  important.  Their  action  after  the  Resur- 
r.xtion  proves  that  the  tomb  was  empty ;  while  their 
action  previous  to  the  Resurrection  proves  that  it  was 
emptied  by  no  ordinary  interposition,  but  by  the  actual 
rising  of  Jesus  from  the  dead.  So  beyond  doubt  was 
this  that  when  Peter  stood  before  the  Sanhedrim  and 
affirmed  it  no  one  was  hardy  enough  to  contradict 
him.  Had  they  been  able  to  persuade  themselves  that 
the  disciples  had  tampered  with  the  guard,  or  over- 
powered them,  or  terrified  them  in  the  night  by  strange 
appearances,  why  did  they  not  prosecute  the  disciples 
for  breaking  the  official  seal  ?  Could  they  have  had  a 
more  plausible  pretext  for  exploding  the  Christian  faith 
and  stamping  out  the  nascent  heresy  ?  They  were 
perplexed  and  alarmed  at  the  growth  of  the  Church  ; 
what  hindered  them  from  bringing  proof  that  there  had 
been  no  resurrection  ?  They  had  every  inducement  to 
do  so,  yet  they  did  not.  If  the  body  was  still  in  the 
grave,  nothing  was  easier  than  to  produce  it ;  if  the 
grave  was  empty,  as  they  affirmed,  because  the  disciples 
had  stolen  the  body,  no  more  welcome  handle  against 


XV.  i-i;.]    PROOF  OF  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION.  343 

them  could  have  been  furnished  to  the  authorities. 
But  they  could  not  in  open  court  pretend  any  such 
thing.  They  knew  that  what  their  guard  reported  was 
true.  In  short,  there  was  no  object  the  Sanhedrim 
would  more  gladly  have  compassed  than  to  explode  the 
belief  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ ;  if  that  belief  was 
false,  they  had  ample  means  of  showing  it  to  be  so : 
and  yet  they  did  absolutely  nothing  that  had  any 
weight  with  the  public  mind.  It  is  apparent  that  not 
only  the  disciples,  but  the  authorities,  were  compelled  to 
admit  the  fact  of  the  Resurrection. 

The  idea  that  there  was  only  a  pretended  resurrec- 
tion, vamped  up  by  the  disciples,  may  therefore  be  dis- 
missed ;  and  indeed  no  well-informed  person  nowadays 
would  venture  to  affirm  such  a  thing.  It  is  admitted 
by  those  who  deny  the  Resurrection  as  explicitly  as  by 
those  who  affirm  it  that  the  disciples  had  a  bond  fide 
belief  that  Jesus  had  risen  from  the  dead  and  was  alive. 
The  only  question  is,  How  was  that  belief  produced  ? 
And  to  this  question  there  are  three  answers:  (l)  that 
the  disciples  saw  our  Lord  alive  after  the  Crucifixion, 
but  He  had  never  been  dead  ;  (2)  that  they  only 
thought  they  saw  Him ;  and  (3)  that  they  did  actually 
see  Him  alive  after  being  dead  and  buried. 

I.  The  first  answer  is  plainly  inadequate.  We  are 
asked  to  account  for  the  Christian  Church,  for  the 
belief  in  a  risen  Lord  which  animated  the  first  disciples 
with  a  faith,  a  hope,  a  courage,  whose  power  is  felt  to 
this  day  ;  we  ask  for  an  explanation  of  this  singular 
circumstance  that  a  number  of  men  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion that  they  had  an  almighty  Friend,  One  who 
had  all  power  in  heaven  and  on  earth ;  and  we  are 
told,  in  explanation  of  this,  that  they  had  seen  their 
Master  barely  rescued  from  crucifixion,  creeping  about 


344     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 


the  earth,  scarcely  able  to  move,  all  stained  with  blood, 
soiled  from  the  tomb,  pale,  weak,  helpless,  and  this 
object  caused  them  to  believe  He  was  almighty.  As 
one  of  the  most  sceptical  of  critics  himself  says,  "  one 
who  had  thus  crept  forth  half  dead  from  the  grave  and 
crawled  about  a  sickly  patient,  needing  medical  and 
surgical  assistance,  nursing  and  strengthening,  and 
who  finally  succumbed  to  his  sufferings,  could  never 
have  given  his  followers  the  impression  that  he  was 
the  Conqueror  over  death  and  the  grave,  the  Prince  of 
life.  Such  a  recovery  could  only  have  weakened  or 
at  best  given  a  pathetic  tinge  to  the  impression  which 
he  had  made  upon  them  by  his  life  and  death;  it 
could  not  possibly  have  changed  their  sorrow  into 
ecstasy,  and  raised  their  reverence  into  worship." 

This  explanation  then  may  be  dismissed.  It  is 
neither  in  harmony  with  the  facts,  nor  is  it  adequate  as 
an  explanation. 

It  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  facts,  because  the 
fact  of  His  death  was  certified  by  the  surest  authority. 
There  was  in  the  world  at  that  time,  and  there  is  in 
the  world  now,  nothing  more  punctiliously  accurate 
than  a  soldier  trained  under  the  old  Roman  discipline. 
The  punctilious  exactness  of  this  discipline  is  seen  in 
the  conduct  both  of  the  soldiers  at  the  cross  and  of 
Pilate.  Though  the  soldiers  see  that  Jesus  is  dead, 
they  make  sure  of  His  death  by  a  spear-thrust,  a  hand- 
breadth  wide,  sufficient  of  itself,  as  they  very  well 
knew,  to  cause  death.  And  when  Pilate  is  applied  to 
for  the  body,  he  will  not  give  it  up  until  he  has  received 
from  the  centurion  on  duty  the  necessary  certificate 
that  the  sentence  of  death  has  actually  been  executed. 

Neither  is  the  supposition  that  Jesus  survived  the 
Crucifixion  and  appeared  to  His  disciples  in  this  rescued 


XV.I-I7.]    PROOF  OF  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION.  345 

condition  any  explanation  of  their  faith  in  Him  as  a 
risen,  glorious,  almighty  Lord.  The  Person  they  saw 
and  afterwards  believed  in  was  not  a  bleeding,  crushed, 
defeated  man,  who  had  death  still  to  look  forward  to, 
but  a  Person  who  had  passed  through  and  conquered 
death,  and  was  now  alive  for  evermore,  opening  for 
Himself  and  to  them  the  gates  of  a  glorious  and  death- 
less life. 

2.  The  belief  of  the  disciples  is  explained  with 
greater  appearance  of  insight  by  those  who  say  that 
they  imagined  they  saw  the  risen  Lord,  although  in 
reality  they  did  not.  There  are,  it  is  pointed  out, 
several  ways  in  which  the  disciples  may  have  been 
deceived.  For  example,  some  clever  and  scheming 
person  may  have  personated  Jesus.  Such  persona- 
tions have  been  made,  but  never  with  such  results. 
When  Postumus  Agrippa  was  killed,  one  of  his  slaves 
secreted  or  dispersed  the  ashes  of  the  murdered  man, 
to  destroy  the  evidence  of  his  death,  and  retired  for  a 
time  till  his  hair  and  beard  were  grown,  to  favour  a 
certain  likeness  which  he  actually  bore  him.  Mean- 
while, taking  a  few  intimates  into  his  confidence,  he 
spread  a  report,  which  found  ready  listeners,  that 
Agrippa  still  lived.  He  glided  from  town  to  town, 
showing  himself  in  the  dusk  for  a  few  minutes  only  at 
a  time  to  men  prepared  for  the  sudden  apparition, 
until  it  came  to  be  noised  abroad  that  the  gods  had 
saved  the  grandson  of  Agrippa  from  the  fate  intended 
for  him,  and  that  he  was  about  to  visit  the  city  and 
claim  his  rightful  inheritance.  But  no  sooner  did  the 
vulgar  imposture  take  this  practical  shape  and  come 
into  contact  with  the  realities  of  life  than  the  whole 
trick  exploded.  Imposture,  in  fact,  does  not  fit  the  case 
before  us  at  all;  and  the  more  we  consider  the  combina- 


346     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 


tion  of  qualities  required  in  any  one  who  could  under- 
take to  personate  the  risen  Lord,  the  more  we  shall  be 
persuaded  that  the  right  explanation  of  the  belief  in 
the  Resurrection  is  not  to  be  sought  in  this  direction. 

Again,  one  of  the  most  reasonable  and  influential 
of  our  contemporaries  ascribes  "  the  great  myth  of 
Christ's  bodily  revival  to  the  belief  on  the  part  of  the 
disciples  that  such  a  soul  could  not  become  extinct. 
In  a  lesser  way  the  grave  of  a  beloved  friend  has  been 
to  many  a  man  the  birthplace  of  his  faith  ;  and  it  is 
obvious  that  in  the  case  of  Christ  every  condition  was 
fulfilled  Vv'hich  would  raise  such  sudden  conviction  to 
the  height  of  passionate  fervour.  The  first  words  of 
the  disciples  to  one  another  on  that  Easter  morn  may 
well  have  been  '  He  is  not  dead.  His  spirit  is  this 
day  in  paradise  among  the  sons  of  God.' "  Quite  so ; 
they  of  course  believed  that  His  spirit  was  in  paradise, 
and  for  that  very  reason  fully  expected  to  find  His 
body  in  the  tomb.  No  ordinary  visit  to  a  grave,  nor 
any  ordinary  results  flowing  from  such  a  visit,  throw 
light  on  the  case  before  us,  because  in  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances sane  men  do  not  believe  that  their  friends 
are  restored  to  them,  and  are  standing  in  bodily  palpable 
shape  before  them.  There  is  no  likelihood  whatever 
that  their  belief  in  the  continued  existence  of  their 
Master's  spirit  should  have  given  rise  to  the  conviction 
that  they  had  seen  Him.  It  might  have  given  rise  to 
such  expressions  as  that  He  would  be  with  them  to 
the  end  of  the  world,  but  not  to  the  conviction  that 
they  had  seen  Him  in  the  body. 

Here,  again,  is  Rcnan's  account  of  the  grovvth  of  this 
belief :  "  To  Jesus  was  to  ha})pen  the  same  fortune 
vhich  is  the  lot  of  all  men  who  have  riveted  the 
attention  of  their  fellow-m.en.     The  world,  accustomed 


XV.  I-I7.]    PROOF  OF  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION.  347 

to  attribute  to  them  superhuman  virtues,  cannot  admit 
that  they  have  submitted  to  the  unjust,  revolting,  ini- 
quitous law  of  the  death  common  to  all.  At  the 
moment  in  which  Mahomet  expired  Omar  rushed  from 
the  tent,  sword  in  hand,  and  declared  that  he  would 
hew  down  any  one  who  should  dare  to  say  that  the 
prophet  was  no  more.  .  .  .  Heroes  do  not  die.  What 
is  true  existence  but  the  recollection  of  us  which  sur- 
vives in  the  hearts  of  those  who  love  us  ?  For  some 
years  this  adored  Master  had  filled  the  little  world  by 
which  He  was  surrounded  with  joy  and  hope  ;  could 
they  consent  to  allow  Him  to  the  decay  of  the  tomb  ? 
No ;  He  had  lived  so  entirely  in  those  who  surrounded 
Him,  that  they  could  but  affirm  that  after  Hi^  death 
He  was  still  living."  M.  Renan  is  careful  not  to 
remind  us  that  the  uproar  occasioned  by  Omar's 
announcement  was  stilled  by  the  calm  voice  of  Abu 
Bekr,  who  also  came  forth  from  the  deathbed  of 
Mahomet  with  the  memorable  words,  ''Whoso  hath 
worshipped  Mahomet,  let  him  know  that  Mahomet 
is  dead,  but  whoso  hath  worshipped  God  that  the 
Lord  liveth  and  doth  not  die."  The  great  critic  omits 
also  to  notice  that  none  of  the  Apostles  said,  like  Omar, 
that  their  Master  was  not  dead  ;  they  admitted  and 
felt  His  death  keenly  ;  and  it  is  vain  to  attempt  to  con- 
found things  essentially  distinct,  the  assertion  of  a 
matter  of  fact,  viz.,  that  the  Lord  had  risen  again,  with 
the  sentimental  or  regretful  resuscitation  of  a  man's 
image  in  the  hearts  of  his  surviving  friends. 

Besides,  it  should  be  observed  that  all  these  hypo- 
theses which  explain  the  belief  in  the  Resurrection  by 
supposing  that  the  disciples  imagined  they  had  seen 
Christ,  or  persuaded  themselves  that  He  still  lived, 
omit  altogether  to  explain  how  they  disposed  of  the 


*•  - 


v:^..    \v:^:s^ 


348     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS. 

tomb  of  our  Lord,  in  which,  according  to  this  hypothesis, 
His  body  was  still  quietly  reposing.  One  or  two 
persons  in  a  peculiarly  excitable  state  might  suppose 
they  had  seen  a  figure  resembling  a  person  about  whom 
they  were  concerned  ;  but  how  the  belief  that  the  tomb 
was  empty  could  take  any  hold  on  them  or  on  the 
thousands  who  must  have  visited  it  in  the  succeeding 
weeks  is  not  explained,  nor  is  any  attempt  made  to 
explain  it. 

Is  there  then  no  possibility  of  the  disciples  having 
been  deceived  ?     May  they  not  have  been  mistaken  ? 
May  they  not  have  seen  what  they  wished  to  see,  as 
other  men  have  sometimes  done  ?     Men  of  vivid  fancy 
or  of  a  boastful  spirit  sometimes  come  really  to  believe 
they  have  done  and  said  things  they  never  did  or  said. 
Is  it  out  of  the  question  to  imagine  that  the  disciples 
may  have  been   similarly  misled  ?     Had  the  belief  in 
the  Resurrection  depended  on  the  report  of  one  man, 
had  there  been  only  one  or  a  few  eyewitnesses  of  the 
matter,  their  evidence  might  have  been  explained  away 
on  this  ground.     It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  one  or 
two  persons  who  were  anxiously  looking  for  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  might  have  persuaded  themselves  they 
saw  Him,  might  persuade  themselves  that  some  distant 
figure  or  some  gleam  of  morning  sunshine  among  the 
trees  of   the  garden  was  the   looked-for   person.      It 
requires  no  profound  psychological  knowledge  to  teach 
us  that  occasionally  visions   are  seen.     But  what  we 
have    here    to    explain    is    how    not    one    but    several 
persons,   not   together    but    in  different  places  and  at 
different  times,   not  all   in  one  mood  of  mind  but  in 
various  mcods,  came  to  believe  they  had  seen  the  risen 
Lord.    He  was  recognised,  not  by  persons  who  expected 
to  see  Him  alive,  but  by  women  who  went  to  anoint 


XV.  i-iy.]    PROOF  OF  ChRISTS  RESURRECTION.  349 

Him  dead;  not  by  credulous,  excitable  persons,  but 
by  men  who  would  not  believe  till  they  had  gone  to 
and  into  the  sepulchre  ;  not  by  persons  so  enthusiastic 
and  creative  of  their  own  belief  as  to  mistake  any 
passing  stranger  or  even  a  gleam  of  light  for  Him 
they  sought,  but  so  slow  to  believe,  so  scornfully 
incredulous  of  resurrection,  so  resolutely  sceptical 
and  so  keenly  alive  to  the  possibility  of  delusion, 
that  they  vowed  nothing  would  satisfy  them  but  the 
test  of  touch  and  sight.  It  was  a  belief  produced, 
not  by  one  extraordinary  and  doubtful  appearance,  but 
by  repeated  and  prolonged  appearances  to  persons  in 
various  places  and  of  various  temperaments. 

This  supposition,  therefore,  that  the  disciples  were 
prepared  to  believe  in  the  Resurrection  and  wished  to 
believe  it,  and  that  what  they  wished  to  see  they 
thought  they  saw,  must  be  given  up.  It  has  never 
been  shown  that  the  disciples  had  such  a  belief;  it 
formed  no  part  of  the  Jewish  creed  regarding  the 
Messiah :  and  the  idea  that  they  actually  were  in  this 
expectant  state  of  mind  is  thoroughly  contradicted  by 
the  narrative.  So  far  from  being  hopeful,  they  were 
sad  and  gloomy,  as  witness  the  melancholy,  resigned 
despair  of  the  two  friends  on  the  road  to  Emmaus. 

"It  is  a  woe  *  too  deep  for  tears '  when  all 
Is  reft  at  once,  when  some  surpassing  spirit, 
Whosj  light  adorned  the  world  around  it,  leaves 
Those  who  remain  behind,  not  sobs  or  groans, 
But  pale  despair  and  cold  tranquillity." 

Such  was  the  state  of  mind  of  the  bereft  disciples. 
They  thought  all  was  over.  The  women  who  went 
with  their  spices  to  anoint  the  dead — they  certainly 
were  not  expecting  to  find  their  Lord  risen.  The  men 
to  whom    they  announced  what    they  had   seen   were 


350     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 


sceptical  ;  some  of  them  laughed  at  the  women,  and 
called  their  report  **  idle  tales,"  and  would  not  believe. 
Mary  Magdalene  was  so  little  expecting  to  see  her 
Lord  alive  again  that  when  He  did  appear  to  her  she 
thought  He  was  the  gardener,  the  only  person  she 
dreamt  of  seeing  going  about  at  that  hour  in  the  garden. 
Thomas,  with  all  the  resolute  distrust  of  others  which 
a  modern  sceptic  could  show,  vows  he  will  believe  such 
a  wild  imagination  on  no  man's  word,  and  unless  he 
sees  the  Lord  with  his  own  eyes  and  is  allowed  to 
test  the  reality  of  the  figure  by  touch  as  well,  he  will 
not  be  convinced.  To  the  disciples  on  the  way  to 
Emmaus,  though  they  had  never  heard  such  conversa- 
tion before  as  that  of  the  Person  who  joined  them,  it 
never  once  occurred  that  this  could  be  the  Lord.  In 
short,  there  was  not  one  person  to  whom  our  Lord 
appeared  who  was  not  taken  wholly  by  surprise.  So 
far  were  they  from  depicting  the  Resurrection  in  their 
hopes  and  fancies  with  such  vividness  as  to  make  it 
seem  to  take  outward  shape  and  reality,  that  even  when 
it  did  actually  take  place  they  could  scarcely  believe  it 
on  the  strongest  evidence.  We  are  compelled,  there- 
fore, to  dismiss  the  idea  that  the  first  disciples  believed 
in  the  resurrection  because  they  wished  to  do  so  and 
were  prepared  to  do  so. 

3.  There  remains,  therefore,  only  the  third  explana- 
tion of  the  disciples'  belief  in  the  Resurrection  :  they 
did  see  Him  alive  after  He  had  been  dead  and  buried. 
Plainly  it  was  no  phantom,  or  ghost,  or  imaginary 
appearance  which  could  personate  their  lost  Master  and 
rouse  them  from  the  despondency,  and  inaction,  and 
timidity  of  disappointed  hopes  to  the  calmest  con- 
sistency of  plan  and  the  firmest  courage.  It  was  no 
vision  created  by  their  own  imaginatic  n  which  could  at 


XV.  i-i;.]    PROOF  OF  CHRISTS  RESURRECTION.  351 

once  and  for  ever  alter  the  idea  of  the  Messiah  which 
the  disciples,  in  common  with  all  their  countrymen,  held. 
It  was  no  phantom  who  could  imitate  the  impressive 
individuality  of  the  Lord  and  continue  His  identity 
into  new  scenes,  who  could  inspire  the  disciples  with 
unity  of  purpose,  and  who  could  lead  them  forward  to 
the  most  splendid  victories  men  have  ever  won.  No ; 
nothing  will  explain  the  faith  of  the  Apostles  and  of 
the  rest  but  the  fact  of  their  really  seeing  the  Lord 
after  His  death  clothed  in  power.  The  men  who  said 
they  had  seen  Him  were  men  of  probity  ;  they  were 
men  who  showed  themselves  worthy  of  being  witnesses 
to  so  great  an  event ;  men  animated  by  no  paltry  spirit 
of  vainglory,  but  by  seriousness,  even  sublimity,  of 
mind;  men  whose  lives  and  conduct  require  an  ex- 
planation, and  which  are  explained  by  their  having 
been  brought  in  contact  with  the  spiritual  world  in  this 
surprising  and  solemnizing  manner. 

The  testimony  of  Paul  himself  is  in  some  respects 
more  convincing  than  that  of  those  who  saw  the  Lord 
immediately  after  the  Resurrection.  Certainly  he  was 
neither  anxious  to  believe  nor  likely  to  be  ignorant  of 
the  facts.  He  had  devoted  himself  to  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  new  faith ;  all  his  hopes  as  a  Pharisee  and 
as  a  Jew  were  banded  against  it.  He  had  the  best 
m.eans  of  ascertaining  the  truth,  living  on  terms  of 
friendship  with  the  leading  men  in  Jerusalem.  It  is 
simply  inconceivable  that  he  should  have  abandoned  all 
his  prospects  and  entered  on  a  wholly  different  life 
without  carefully  investigating  the  chief  fact  which 
influenced  him  in  making  this  change.  It  is  of  course 
said  that  Paul  was  a  nervous,  excitable  creature,  pro- 
bably epileptic,  and  certainly  liable  to  see  visions.  It 
is  insinuated  that  his  conversion  was  due  to  the  com- 


352     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 


bined  influence  of  epilepsy  and  a  thunderstorm — of  all 
the  unlucky  suggestions  of  modern  scepticism  perhaps 
the  unluckiest.  Were  it  true,  one  could  only  wish 
epilepsy  commoner  than  it  is.  We  have  to  account 
not  only  for  Paul's  conversion,  but  for  his  abiding  by 
the  convictions  at  first  produced  in  him.  It  is  out  of 
the  question  to  suppose  that  he  did  not  spend  much  of 
the  immediately  succeeding  years  in  examining  the 
grounds  of  the  Christian  faith  and  in  questioning  him- 
self as  to  his  own  belief.  Paul  was  no  doubt  eager 
and  enthusiastic,  but  no  man  was  ever  better  fitted  to 
move  among  the  realities  of  life  or  to  ascertain  what 
these  realities  are.  Englishmen  regard  Paley  as  one  of 
the  best  representatives  of  the  combined  acuteness  and 
sense,  penttration  and  solidity  of  judgment,  by  which 
English  judges  are  supposed  to  be  characterized ;  and 
Paley  says  of  Paul,  *'  His  letters  furnish  evidence  of 
the  soundness  and  sobriety  of  his  judgment,  and  his 
morality  is  everywhere  calm,  pure,  and  rational  ; 
adapted  to  the  condition,  the  activity,  and  the  business 
of  social  life  and  of  its  various  relations ;  free  from  the 
overscrupulousness  and  austerities  of  superstition,  and 
from  what  was  more  perhaps  to  be  apprehended,  the 
abstractions  of  quietism  and  the  soarings  and  extrava- 
gances of  fanaticism."  But  really  no  person  of  ordinary 
capacity  needs  certificates  of  Paul's  sanity.  No  saner 
or  more  commanding  intellect  ever  headed  a  complex 
and  difficult  movement.  There  is  no  one  of  that 
generation  whose  testimony  to  the  Resurrection  is 
more  worth  having,  and  we  have  it  in  the  most 
emphatic  form  of  a  life  based  upon  it. 

No  one,  so  far  as  I  know,  who  has  taken  a  serious 
interest  in  the  evidence  adduced  for  this  event,  has 
denied  that  it  would  be  quite  sufficient  to  authenticate 


XV.  I-I7.]    PROOF  OF  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION.  353 

any  ordinary  historical  event.  In  point  of  fact,  the 
majority  of  the  events  of  past  history  are  accepted  on 
much  slenderer  evidence  than  that  which  we  have  for 
the  Resurrection.  The  evidence  we  have  for  it  is  of 
precisely  the  same  kind  as  that  on  which  we  accept 
ordinary  events ;  it  is  the  testimony  of  the  persons  con- 
cerned, the  simple  statements  of  eyewitnesses  and  of 
those  who  were  acquainted  with  eyewitnesses.  It  is 
not  a  prophetical  or  poetical,  or  symbolical,  or  super- 
natural statement,  but  the  plain  and  uAvarnished 
testimony  of  ordinary  men.  The  accounts  vary  in 
many  particulars,  but  as  to  the  central  fact  that  the 
Lord  rose  and  was  seen  over  and  over  again  there 
is  no  variation,  and  such  variations  as  there  are  are 
merely  such  as  exist  in  all  similar  accounts  by  different 
individuals  of  one  and  the  same  event.  In  short,  the 
evidence  can  be  refused  only  on  the  ground  that  no 
evidence,  however  strong,  could  prove  such  an  incredible 
event.  It  is  admitted  that  the  evidence  would  be 
accepted  in  any  other  case,  but  this  reported  event  is 
in  itself  incredible.  The  idea  of  any  interference  with 
the  physical  laws  which  rule  the  world,  no  matter  how 
important  an  end  is  to  be  served  by  the  interference, 
is  rejected  as  out  of  the  question.  This  seems  to  me 
quite  an  illogical  mxCthod  of  dealing  with  the  subject. 
The  supernatural  is  rejected  as  a  preliminary,  so  as  to 
bar  any  consideration  of  the  most  appropriate  evidences 
of  the  supernatural.  Before  looking  at  that  which,  if 
not  the  most  effective  proof  of  the  supernatural,  is  at 
least  among  those  arguments  which  chiefly  deserve 
attention,  the  mind  is  made  up  to  r^-ject  all  evidence  of 
the  supernatural. 

The  first  business  of  scientific  men  is  to  look  at  facts. 
Many  facts  which   at  first  sight  seemed  to  contr-adict 

23 


354     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

previously  ascertained  laws  were  ultimately  found  to 
indicate  the  presence  of  a  higher  law.  Why  are  men 
of  science  so  terrified  by  the  word  "miracle"  ?  This 
event  may,  like  the  visit  of  a  comet,  have  occurred  only 
once  in  the  world's  history ;  but  it  need  not  on  that 
account  be  irreducible  to  law  or  to  reason.  The 
resurrection  of  Christ  is  unique,  because  He  is  unique. 
Find  another  Person  bearing  the  same  relation  to  the 
race  and  living  the  same  life,  and  yoa  will  find  a  similar 
resurrection.  To  say  that  it  is  unusual  or  unprece- 
dented is  to  say  nothing  at  all  to  the  purpose. 

Besides,  those  who  reject  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
as  impossible  are  compelled  to  accept  an  equally 
astounding  moral  miracle — the  miracle,  I  mean,  that 
those  who  had  the  best  means  of  ascertaining  the  truth 
and  every  possible  inducement  to  ascertain  it  should 
all  have  been  deceived,  and  that  this  deception  should 
have  been  the  most  fruitful  source  of  good,  not  only  to 
them,  but  to  the  whole  world. 

We  are  brought  then  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
disciples  believed  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ  because 
it  had  actually  taken  place.  No  other  account  of  their 
belief  has  ever  been  given  which  commends  itself  to 
the  common  understanding  which  accepts  what  appeals 
to  it.  No  account  of  the  belief  has  been  given  which 
is  at  all  likely  to  gain  currency  or  which  is  more 
credible  than  that  which  it  seeks  to  supplant.  I'he 
belief  in  the  Resurrection  which  so  suddenly  and  effec- 
tively possessed  the  first  disciples  remains  unexplained 
by  any  other  supposition  than  the  simple  one  that  the 
Lord  did  rise  again. 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  DENYING  RESURRECTION, 


"  Now  if  Christ  be  preached  that  He  rose  from  the  dead,  how  say 
some  among  you  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead?  But  if 
there  be  no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  then  is  Christ  not  risen  :  and 
if  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain,  and  your  faith  is 
also  vain.  Yea,  and  we  are  found  false  witnesses  of  God  ;  because 
we  have  testified  of  God  that  He  raised  up  Christ:  whom  He  raised 
not  up,  if  so  be  that  the  dead  rise  not.  For  if  the  dead  rise  not,  then 
is  not  Christ  raised  :  and  if  Christ  be  not  raised,  your  faith  is  vain  ; 
ye  are  j'et  in  your  sins.  Then  they  also  which  are  fallen  asleep  in 
Christ  are  perished.  If  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we 
are  of  all  men  most  miserable.  But  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the 
dead,  and  become  the  firstfruits  of  them  that  slept.  For  since  by 
man  came  death,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  For 
as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive.  But 
every  man  in  his  own  order  :  Christ  the  firstfruits  ;  afterward  they 
that  are  Christ's  at  His  coming.  Then  cometh  the  end,  when  He 
shall  have  delivered  up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father  ;  when 
He  shall  have  put  down  all  rule  and  all  authority  and  power.  For 
He  must  reign,  till  He  hath  put  all  enemies  under  His  feet.  The 
last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death.  For  He  hath  put  all 
things  under  His  feet.  But  when  He  saith,  all  things  are  put  under 
Him,  it  is  manifest  that  He  is  excepted,  which  did  put  all  things 
under  Him.  And  when  all  things  shall  be  subdued  unto  Him,  then 
shall  the  Son  also  Himself  be  subject  unto  Him  that  put  all  things 
under  Him,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all.  Else  what  shall  they  do 
which  are  baptized  for  the  dead,  if  the  dead  rise  not  at  all  ?  why  are 
they  then  baptized  for  the  dead  ?  And  why  stand  we  in  jeopardy 
every  hour?  I  protest  by  your  rejoicing  which  I  have  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord,  I  die  daily.  If  after  the  manner  of  men  I  have 
fought  with  beasts  at  Ephcsui,  \vl  at  advantageth  it  me,  if  the  dead 
rise  not  ?  let  us  eat  and  drink ;  for  to-morrow  we  die.  Be  not 
deceived :  evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners.  Awake  to 
righteousness,  and  sin  not ;  for  some  have  not  the  knowledge  of  God  : 
1  speak  this  to  your  shame." — I  Cor.  xv.  12-34 


XXIII. 

CONSEQUENCES  OF  DENYING  RESURRECTION. 

IN  endeavouring  to  restore  among  the  Corinthians 
the  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  Paul 
shows  the  fundamental  place  occupied  in  the  Christian 
creed  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and  what  attestation 
His  resurrection  had  received.  He  further  exhibits 
certain  consequences  which  flow  from  denial  of  the 
resurrection.  These  consequences  are  (i)  that  if  there 
is  no  resurrection  of  the  body,  then  Christ  is  not  risen, 
and  that,  therefore,  (2)  the  Apostles  who  witnessed  to 
that  resurrection  are  false  witnesses  ;  (3)  that  those 
who  had  already  died  believing  in  Christ,  had  perished, 
and  that  our  hope  in  Christ  must  be  confined  to  this 
life  ;  (4)  that  baptism  for  the  dead  is  a  vain  folly  if  the 
dead  rise  not.  To  the  statement  and  discussion  of  these 
consequences  Paul  devotes  a  large  part  of  this  chapter, 
from  verse  12  to  verse  34.  Let  us  take  the  least 
important  consequence  first. 

I.  "If  the  dead  rise  not  at  all,  what  shall  they  do 
who  are  baptized  for  the  dead  ?  "  (ver.  29)—  an  enquiry 
of  which  the  Corinthians  no  doubt  felt  the  full  force, 
but  which  is  rather  lost  upon  us  because  we  do  not 
know  what  it  means.  Some  have  thought  that  as 
baptism  is  sometimes  used  in  Scripture  as  equivalent 
to  immersion  in  a  sea  of  troubles,  Paul  means  to  ask, 


358     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

"  What  shall  they  do,  what  hope  have  they,  who  are 
plunged  in  grief  for  the  friends  they  have  lost  ?  "  Some 
think  it  refers  to  those  who  have  been  baptized  with 
Christ's  baptism,  that  is  to  say,  have  suffered  martyr- 
dom and  so  entered  into  the  Church  of  the  dead. 
Others  again  think,  that  to  be  baptized  ''  for  the  dead  " 
means  no  more  than  ordinary  baptism,  in  which  the 
believer  looks  forward  to  the  resurrection  from  the 
dead.  The  primitive  form  of  baptism  brought  death 
and  the  resurrection  vividly  before  the  believer's  mind, 
and  confirmed  his  hope  in  the  resurrection,  which  hope 
was  vain  if  there  is  no  resurrection. 

The  plain  meaning  of  the  words,  however,  seems  to 
point  to  a  vicarious  baptism,  in  which  a  living  friend 
received  baptism  as  a  proxy  for  a  person  who  had  died 
without  baptism.  Of  such  a  custom  there  is  historical 
trace.  Even  before  the  Christian  era,  among  the  Jews 
when  a  man  died  in  a  state  of  ceremonial  defilement  it 
was  customary  for  a  friend  of  the  deceased  to  perform 
in  his  stead  the  v/ashings  and  other  rites  which  the  dead 
man  would  have  performed  had  he  recovered.  A  similar 
practice  prevailed  to  some  small  extent  among  the  primi- 
tive Christians,  although  it  was  never  admitted  as  a 
valid  rite  by  the  Church  Catholic.  Then,  as  now,  it 
sometimes  happened  that  on  the  approach  of  death  the 
thoughts  of  unbelieving  persons  were  strongly  turned 
towards  the  Christian  faith,  but  before  baptism  could 
be  administered  death  cut  down  the  intending  Christian. 
Baptism  was  generally  postponed  until  youth  or  even 
middle  life  was  passed,  in  order  that  a  large  number 
of  sins  might  be  washed  away  in  baptism,  or  that 
fewer  might  stain  the  soul  after  it.  But  naturally 
miscalculations  sometimes  occurred,  and  sudden  death 
anticipated  a  long-delayed  baptism.     In  such  cases  the 


XV.]  CONSEQUENCES  OF  DENYING  RESURRECTION.  359 

friends  of  the  deceased  derived  consolation  from  vica- 
rious baptism.  Some  one  who  was  persuaded  of  the 
faith  of  the  departed  answered  for  him  and  was  baptized 
in  his  stead. 

If  Paul  meant  to  say,  On  the  supposition  that  death 
ends  all,  what  is  the  use  of  any  one  being  baptized  as 
proxy  for  a  dead  friend  ?  he  could  not  have  used  words 
more  expressive  of  his  meaning  than  when  he  says,  "  If 
the  dead  rise  not  at  all,  why  are  they  then  baptized  for 
the  dead  ?  "  The  only  difficulty  is,  that  Paul  might  thus 
seem  to  draw  an  argument  for  a  fundamental  doctrine 
of  Christianity  from  a  foolish  and  unjustifiable  practice. 
Is  it  possible  that  a  man  of  such  sagacity  can  have 
sanctioned  or  countenanced  so  absurd  a  superstition  ? 
But  his  alluding  to  this  custom  in  the  way  he  here 
does,  scarcely  implies  that  he  approved  of  it.  He 
rather  differentiates  himself  from  those  who  practised 
the  rite.  "What  shall  they  do  who  are  baptized  for 
the  dead  ? " — referring,  probably,  to  some  of  the 
Corinthians  themselves.  In  any  case,  the  point  of 
the  argument  is  obvious.  To  be  baptized  for  those 
who  had  died  without  baptism,  and  whose  future  was 
supposed  thereby  to  be  jeopardized,  had  at  least  a 
show  of  friendliness  and  reason ;  to  be  baptized  for 
those  who  had  already  passed  out  of  existence  was  of 
course,  on  the  face  of  it,  absurd. 

2.  The  second  consequence  which  flows  from  the 
denial  of  the  resurrection  is,  that  Paul's  own  life  is 
a  mistake.  "  Why  stand  we  in  jeopardy  every  hour  ? 
What  advantageth  it  me  to  risk  death  daily,  and  to 
suffer  daily,  if  the  dead  rise  not  ? "  If  there  is  no 
resurrection,  he  says,  my  whole  life  is  a  folly.  No  day 
passes  but  I  am  in  danger  of  death  at  the  hands  either 
of  an  infuriated  mob  or  a  mistaken  magistrate.     I  am 


36o     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

in  constant  jeopardy,  in  perils  by  land  and  sea,  in  perils 
of  robbers,  in  nakedness,  in  fasting  ;  all  these  dangers 
I  gladly  encounter  because  I  believe  in  the  resurrection. 
But  "  if  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  then 
we  are  of  all  men  most  miserable."  We  lose  both  this 
life  and  that  which  we  thought  was  to  come. 

Paul's  meaning  is  plain.  By  the  hope  of  a  life 
beyond,  he  had  been  induced  to  undergo  the  greatest 
privations  in  this  life.  He  had  been  exposed  to  count- 
less dangers  and  indignities.  Although  a  Roman  citizen, 
he  had  been  cast  into  the  arena  to  contend  with  wild 
beasts  :  there  was  no  risk  he  had  not  run,  no  hardship 
he  had  not  endured.  But  in  all  he  was  sustained  by 
the  assurance  that  there  remained  for  him  a  rest  and 
an  inheritance  in  a  future  life.  Remove  this  assurance 
and  you  remove  the  assumption  on  which  his  conduct 
is  wholly  built.  If  there  is  no  future  life  either  to  win 
or  to  lose,  then  the  Epicurean  motto  may  take  the 
place  of  Christ's  promises,  *'  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morrow  we  die." 

It  may  indeed  be  said  that  even  if  there  be  no  life 
to  come,  this  life  is  best  spent  in  the  service  of  man, 
however  full  of  hazard  and  hardship  that  service  be. 
That  is  quite  true ;  and  had  Paul  believed  this  life 
was  all,  he  might  still  have  chosen  to  spend  it,  not  on 
sensual  indulgence,  but  in  striving  to  win  men  to  some- 
thing better.  But  in  that  case  tlicre  would  have  been 
no  deception  and  no  disappointment.  In  point  of  fact, 
however,  Paul  believed  in  a  life  to  come,  and  it  was 
because  he  believed  in  that  life  he  gave  himself  to  the 
work  of  winning  men  to  Christ  regardless  of  his  own 
pains  and  losses.  And  what  he  says  is  that  if  he  is 
mistaken,  then  all  these  pains  and  losses  have  been 
gratuitous,  and  that  his  whole  life  has  proceeded  on  a 


XV.]  CONSEQUEACES  OF  DENYING  RESURRECTION.  361 

mistake.     The  life  to  which  he  sought  to  win  and  for 
which  he  sought  to  prepare  men  does  not  exist. 

Besides,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  mass  of 
men  do  sink  to  a  merely  sensual  or  earthly  life  if  the 
hope  of  immortality  is  removed,  and  that  Paul  did  not 
require  to  be  very  guarded  in  his  statement  of  this 
truth.  In  fact,  the  words  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morrow  we  die  "  were  taken  from  the  history  of  his 
own  nation.  When  Jerusalem  was  besieged  by  the 
Babylonians  and  no  escape  seemed  possible,  the  people 
gave  themselves  up  to  recklessness  and  despair  and 
sensual  indulgence,  saying,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for 
to-morrow  we  die."  Similar  instances  of  the  reckless- 
ness produced  by  the  near  approach  of  death  may  very 
readily  be  culled  from  the  history  of  shipwrecks,  of 
pestilences,  and  of  besieged  cities.  In  the  old  Jewish 
book,  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  it  finds  a  very  beautiful 
expression,  the  following  words  being  put  into  the 
mouth  of  those  who  knew  not  that  man  is  immortal : 
"  Our  life  is  short  and  tedious,  and  in  the  death  of  man 
is  no  remedy  ;  neither  was  any  man  ever  known  to 
return  from  the  grave :  for  we  are  all  born  at  an 
adventure,  and  shall  be  afterwards  as  though  we  had 
never  been ;  for  the  breath  of  our  nostrils  is  as  smoke, 
and  a  little  spark  is  the  moving  of  our  heart,  which, 
being  extinguished,  our  bodies  will  be  burnt  to  ashes, 
and  our  spirit  vanish  as  the  soft  air  :  and  our  name 
chall  be  forgotten  in  time,  and  no  man  shall  hold  our 
V\'orks  in  remembrance,  and  our  life  shall  pass  away 
like  the  trace  of  a  cloud,  and  shall  be  dispersed  as  a 
mist  that  is  driven  away  with  the  beams  of  the  sun, 
and  overcome  with  the  heat  thereof.  .  ,  .  Come- on 
therefore,  let  us  enjoy  the  good  things  that  are  present, 
and  let  us  speedily  use  the  creatures  like  as  in  youth. 


362     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

Let  us  fill  ourselves  with  costly  wine  and  ointments, 
and  let  no  flower  of  the  spring  pass  by  us ;  let  us 
crown  ourselves  with  rosebuds  before  they  be  withered  ; 
let  none  of  us  go  without  his  share  of  voluptuousness  ; 
let  us  leave  tokens  of  our  joyfulness  in  every  place,  for 
this  is  our  portion  and  our  lot  is  this." 

It  is  obvious  therefore  that  this  is  the  conclusion 
which  the  mass  of  mankind  draw  from  a  disbelief  in 
immortality.  Convince  men  that  this  life  is  all,  that 
death  is  final  extinction,  and  they  will  eagerly  drain 
this  life  of  all  the  pleasure  it  can  yield.  We  may  say 
that  there  are  some  men  to  whom  virtue  is  the  greatest 
pleasure  :  we  may  say  that  to  all  the  denial  of  appe- 
tite and  self-indulgence  is  a  more  genuine  pleasure 
than  the  gratification  of  it :  we  may  say  that  virtue  is 
its  own  reward,  and  that  irrespective  of  the  future  it 
is  right  to  live  now  spiritually  and  not  sensually,  for 
God  and  not  for  self:  we  may  say  that  the  judgments 
of  conscience  are  pronounced  without  any  regard  to 
future  consequences,  and  that  the  highest  and  best  life 
for  man  is  a  life  in  conformity  to  conscience  and  in 
fellowship  with  God,  whether  such  life  is  to  be  long  or 
short,  temporal  or  eternal.  And  this  is  true,  but  how 
are  we  to  get  men  to  accept  it  ?  Teach  men  to  believe 
in  a  future  life  and  you  strengthen  every  moral  senti- 
ment and  every  Godward  aspiration  by  revealing  the 
true  dignity  of  human  nature.  Make  men  feel  that 
they  are  immortal  beings,  that  this  life,  so  far  from 
being  all,  is  the  mere  entrance  and  first  step  to 
existence ;  make  men  feel  that  there  is  open  to 
them  an  endless  moral  progress,  and  you  give  them 
some  encouragement  to  lay  the  foundations  of  this 
progress  in  a  self-denying  and  virtuous  life  in  this 
world.     Take  away  this  belief,  encourage  men  to  think 


XV.]  CONSEQUENCES  OF  DENYING  RESURRECTION.  363 

of  themselves  as  worthless  little  creatures  that  come 
into  being  for  a  few  years  and  are  blotted  out  again  for 
ever,  and  you  destroy  one  mainspring  of  right  action 
in  rfien.  It  is  not  that  men  do  noble  deeds  for  the 
sake  of  reward :  the  hope  of  reward  is  scarcely  a 
perceptible  influence  in  the  best  of  men,  or  indeed  in 
any  men  ;  but  in  all  men  trained  as  we  are,  there  is 
an  indefinite  consciousness  that,  being  immortal  crea- 
tures, we  are  made  for  higher  ends  than  those  of  this 
life,  and  have  prospects  of  enjo3^ments  which  should 
make  us  independent  of  the  grosser  pleasures  of  the 
present  bodily  condition. 

Apparently  the  Corinthians  themselves  had  argued 
that  morality  was  quite  independent  of  a  belief  in 
immortality.  For  Paul  goes  on  :  "  Be  not  deceived  :  you 
cannot,  however  much  you  may  think  so,  you  cannot 
hear  such  theories  without  having  your  moral  con- 
victions undermined  and  your  tone  lowered.  This  he 
conveys  to  them  in  a  common  quotation  from  a  heathen 
poet — "  Evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners  ;  " 
that  is  to  say,  false  opinions  have  a  natural  tendency 
to  produce  unsatisfactory  and  immoral  conduct.  To 
keep  company  with  those  whose  conversation  is  frivo- 
lous or  cynical,  or  charged  with  dangerous  or  false 
views  of  things,  has  a  natural  tendency  to  lead  us  to  a 
style  of  conduct  we  should  not  otherwise  have  fallen 
into.  Men  do  not  always  recognise  this ;  they  need 
the  warning,  "  Be  not  deceived."  The  beginnings  of 
conduct  are  so  hidden  from  our  observation,  our  lives 
are  formed  by  influences  so  imperceptible,  what  we 
hear  sinks  so  insidiously  into  the  mind  and  mingles 
so  insensibly  with  our  motives,  that  we  can  never  say 
what  we  have  heard  without  moral  contamination.  No 
doubt  it  is  possible  to  hold  the  most  erroneous  opinions 


364     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

and  yet  to  keep  the  life  pure ;  but  they  are  strong  and 
guileless  spirits  who  can  preserve  a  high  moral  tone 
while  they  have  lost  faith  in  those  truths  which  mainly 
nourish  the  moral  nature  of  the  mass  of  men.  And 
many  have  found  to  their  surprise  and  grief  that 
opinions  which  they  fancied  they  might  very  well  hold 
and  yet  live  a  high  and  holy  life,  have  somehow  sapped 
their  moral  defences  against  temptation  and  paved  the 
way  for  shameful  falls.  We  cannot  always  prevent 
doubts,  even  about  the  most  fundamental  truths,  from 
entering  our  minds,  but  we  can  always  refuse  to 
welcome  such  doubts,  or  to  be  proud  of  them  ;  we  can 
always  be  resolved  to  treat  sacred  things  in  a  reverent 
and  not  in  a  flippant  spirit,  and  we  can  always  aim  at 
least  at  an  honest  and  eager  seeking  for  the  truth. 

3.  But  the  most  serious  consequence  which  results 
if  there  be  no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  is  that  in  that 
case  Christ  is  not  risen.  **  If  there  be  no  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  then  is  Christ  not  risen.'  For  Paul  refused 
to  consider  the  resurrection  of  Christ  as  a  miracle  in 
the  sense  of  its  being  exceptional  and  aside  from  the 
usual  experience  of  man.  On  the  contrary,  he  accepts 
it  as  the  type  to  which  every  man  is  to  be  conformed. 
Precedent  in  time,  exceptional  possibly  in  some  of  its 
accidental  accompaniments,  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
may  be,  but  nevertheless  as  truly  in  the  line  of  human 
development  as  birth,  and  growth,  and  death.  Christ 
being  man  must  submit  to  the  conditions  and  experience 
of  men  in  all  essentials,  in  all  that  characterises  man  as 
human.  And,  therefore,  if  resurrection  be  not  a  normal 
human  experience,  Christ  has  not  risen.  The  time  at 
which  resurrection  takes  place,  and  the  interval  elapsing 
between  death  and  resurrection,  Paul  makes  nothing  of. 
A  child  may  live  but  three  days,  but  it  is  not  on  that 


XV.]  CONSEQUENCES  OF  DENYING  RESURRECTION.  365 

account  any  the  less  human  than  if  he  had  Hved  his 
threescore  years  and  ten.  Similarly  the  fact  of  Christ's 
resurrection  identiiies  Him  with  the  human  race,  while 
the  shortness  of  the  interval  elapsing  between  death 
and  resurrection  does  not  separate  Him  from  man,  for 
in  point  of  fact  the  interval  will  be  less  in  the  case 
of  many. 

Both  here  and  elsewhere  Paul  looks  upon  Christ  as 
the  representa'ive  man,  the  one  in  v^'hom  we  can  see 
the  ideal  of  manhood.  If  any  of  our  own  friends  should 
veritably  die,  and  after  death  should  appear  to  us  alive, 
and  should  prove  his  identity  by  remaining  with  us 
for  a  time,  b}'  showing  an  interest  in  the  very  things 
which  had  previously  occupied  his  thought,  and  by 
taking  practical  steps  to  secure  the  fulhiment  of  his 
purposes,  a  strong  probability  that  we  too  should  live 
through  death  would  inevitaLly  be  impressed  on  our 
mind.  But  when  Christ  rises  from  the  dead  this 
probability  becomes  a  certainty,  because  He  is  the  type 
of  humanity,  the  representative  person.  As  Paul  here 
says,  '*  He  is  the  firstfruits  of  them  that  sleep."  His 
resurrection  is  the  sample  and  pledge  of  ours.  When 
the  farmer  pulls  the  first  ripe  ears  of  wheat  and  carries 
them  home,  it  is  not  for  their  own  sake  he  values  them, 
but  because  they  are  a  specimen  and  sample  of  the 
whole  crop  ;  and  when  God  raised  Christ  from  the 
dead,  the  glory  of  the  event  consisted  in  its  being  a 
pledge  and  specimen  of  the  triumph  of  mankind  over 
death.  "  If  we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again, 
even  so  them  also  which  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring 
with  Him." 

And  yet  while  Paul  distinctly  holds  that  resurrection 
is  a  normal  hum.an  experience,  he  also  implies  that  but 
for  the  interposition  of  Christ  that  experience  might 


have  been  lost  to  men.  It  is  in  Christ  that  men  are 
made  ahve  after  and  through  death.  As  Adam  is  the 
source  of  physical  life  that  ends  in  death,  so  Christ 
is  the  source  of  spiritual  life  that  never  dies.  "  By 
man  came  death,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead."  Adam's  severance  from  God  and 
preference  of  what  was  physical,  brought  man  under 
the  powers  of  the  physical  world  :  Christ  by  perfect 
adhesion  to  God,  and  constant  conquest  of  all  physical 
allurements,  won  life  eternal  for  Himself  and  for  those 
who  have  His  Spirit.  As  a  man  of  genius  and  wisdom 
will  by  his  occupation  of  a  throne  enlarge  men's  ideas 
of  what  a  king  is,  and  bring  many  blessings  to  his 
subjects,  so  Christ  by  living  a  human  life  enlarged  it 
to  its  utmost  dimensions,  compelling  it  to  express  His 
ideas  of  life,  and  winning  for  those  who  follow  Him 
entrance  into  a  larger  and  higher  condition.  Resur- 
rection is  here  represented,  not  as  an  experience  which 
men  would  have  enjoyed  had  Christ  never  appeared  on 
earth,  nor  as  an  experience  opened  to  men  by  God's 
sovereign  goodwill,  but  as  an  experience  in  some  way 
brought  by  Christ  within  human  reach.  "  By  man 
came  death,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.  For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall 
all  be  made  alive."  That  is  to  say,  all  who  are  by 
physical  derivation  truly  united  to  Adam,  incur  the 
death  which  by  sinning  he  introduced  into  human 
experience  ;  and  similarly  all  who  by  spiritual  affinity 
are  in  Christ,  enjoy  the  new  life  which  triumphs  over 
death,  and  which  He  won.  Adam  was  not  the  only 
man  who  died,  but  the  firstfruits  of  a  rich  harvest; 
and  so,  Christ  is  not  alone  in  resurrection,  but  is  become 
the  firstfruits  of  them  that  sleep.  Accoiding  to  Paul's 
theology,  the  conduct  of  a  man,  the  sin  of  Adam,  carried 


XV.]  CONSEQUENCES  OF  DEN YIXG  RESURRECTION.  367 

in  it  disastrous  consequences  to  all  connected  with 
him :  but  equally  fruitful  in  consequences  was  the 
human  life,  death,  and  resurrection  of  Christ.  The 
death  of  Adam  was  the  first  stroke  of  that  funeral  knell 
that  has  ceaselessly  sounded  through  all  generations  : 
but  the  resurrection  of  Christ  was  equally  the  pledge 
and  earnest  that  the  same  experience  would  be  enjoyed 
by  all  ''  that  are  Christ's." 

Paul  is  carried  on  from  the  thought  of  the  resur- 
rection of  "  them  that  are  Christ's,"  to  the  thought 
of  the  consummation  of  all  things  which  this  great 
event  introduces  and  signalizes.  This  exhibition  of 
the  triumph  over  death  is  the  signal  that  all  other 
enemies  are  now  defeated.  "  The  last  enemy  that 
shall  be  destroyed  is  death ; "  and  this  being  destroyed, 
all  Christ's  followers  being  now  gathered  in  and  having 
entered  on  their  eternal  condition,  the  work  of  Christ 
so  far  as  this  world  is  concerned  is  over.  Having 
reunited  men  to  God,  His  work  is  done.  The  pro- 
visional government  administered  by  Him  having 
accomplished  its  work  of  bringing  men  into  perfect 
harmony  with  the  Supreme  Will,  it  gives  place  to  the 
immediate  and  direct  government  of  God.  What  is 
implied  in  this  it  is  impossible  to  say.  A  condition 
in  which  sin  shall  have  no  place  and  in  which  there 
shall  be  no  need  of  means  of  reconciliation,  a  condition 
in  which  the  work  of  Christ  shall  be  no  longer  needed 
and  in  which  God  shall  be  all  in  all,  pervading  with 
His  presence  every  soul  and  as  welcome  and  natural 
as  the  air  or  the  sunlight, — that  is  a  condition  not 
easy  to  be  imagined.  Neither  can  we  readily  imagine 
what  Christ  Himself  shall  be  and  do  when  the  term 
of  His  mediatorial  administration  is  finished  and  God 
is  all  in  all. 


368     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS, 


One  idea  conspicuous  in  this  brief  and  pregnant 
passage  is  that  Christ  came  to  subdue  all  the  enemies 
of  mankind,  and  that  He  will  continue  His  work  until 
His  purpose  is  accomplished.  He  alone  has  taken  a 
perfectly  comprehensive  view  of  the  obstacles  to  human 
happiness  and  progress,  and  He  has  set  Himself  to 
remove  these.  He  alone  has  penetrated  to  the  root 
of  all  human  evil  and  misery,  and  has  given  Himself 
to  the  task  of  emancipating  men  from  all  evil,  of 
restoring  men  to  their  true  life,  and  of  abolishing  for 
ever  the  miseries  which  have  so  largely  characterised 
man's  history.  Slowly  indeed,  and  unseen,  does  His 
work  proceed  ;  slowly,  because  the  work  is  for  eternity, 
and  because  only  gradually  can  moral  and  spiritual 
evils  be  removed.  '*  It  is  by  no  breath,  turn  of  eye, 
wave  of  hand,  salvation  joins  issue  with  death,"  but 
by  actual  and  sustained  moral  conflict,  by  real  sacrifice 
and  persistent  choice  of  good,  by  long  trial  and 
development  of  individual  character,  by  the  slow 
grov^th  of  nations  and  the  interaction  of  social  and 
religious  influences,  by  the  leavening  of  all  that  is 
human  with  the  spirit  of  Christ,  that  is,  with  self- 
devotement  in  practical  life  to  the  good  of  men.  All 
this  is  too  great  and  too  real  to  be  other  than  slow. 
The  tide  of  moral  progress  in  the  world  has  often 
seemed  to  turn.  Even  now,  when  the  leaven  has 
been  working  for  so  long,  how  doubtful  often  seems 
the  issue,  how  concerned  even  Christian  people  are 
about  the  merest  superficialities  and  how  little  labour- 
ing to  put  down  in  Christ's  nam.e  the  common  enemies. 
Can  any  one  who  looks  at  things  as  they  are  find 
it  easy  to  believe  in  the  final  extinction  of  evil  ? 
Whither  tend  the  prevalent  vices,  the  empty-souled 
love    of    pleasure    and    demand    for    excitement,    the 


XV.]  CONSEQUENCES  OF  DENYING  RESURRECTION.  369 

unyielding,  brazen-faced  selfishness  of  the  principles 
of  business  if  not  of  the  men  who  engage  in  it,  the 
diligent  propagation  of  error,  the  oppression  of  the 
rich  and  the  greed  and  sensuality  that  poverty  induces  ? 
One  needs  to  be  reminded  that  these  things  are  the 
enemies,  not  only  of  good  men,  but  of  Christ,  and  that 
by  God's  will  He  is  to  defeat  them.  One  needs  to 
be  reminded  also  that  to  see  this  victory  accomplished 
and  to  have  had  no  share  in  it  will  be  the  sorest 
humiliation  and  the  most  painful  reflection  to  every 
generous  mind.  However  slight  be  our  power,  let 
us  strike  such  blow  as  we  can  at  the  common  enemies 
which  must  be  destroyed  ere  the  great  consummation 
is  reached. 


24 


THE    SPIRITUAL    BODY. 


"But  some  man  will  say,  How  are  the  dead  raised  up?  and  with 
what  body  do  they  come  ?  Thou  fool,  that  which  thou  sowest  is  not 
quickened,  except  it  die  :  and  that  which  thou  sowest,  thou  sowest 
not  that  body  that  shall  be,  but  bare  grain,  it  may  chance  of  wheat, 
or  of  some  other  grain  :  but  God  giveth  it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased 
Him,  and  to  every  seed  his  own  body.  All  flesh  is  not  the  same 
flesh  :  but  there  is  one  kind  of  flesh  of  men,  another  flesh  of  beasts, 
another  of  fishes,  and  another  of  birds.  There  are  also  celestial 
bodies,  and  bodies  terrestrial :  but  the  glory  of  the  celestial  is  one, 
and  the  glory  of  the  terrestrial  is  another.  There  is  one  glory  of  the 
sun,  and  another  glory  of  the  moon,  and  another  glory  of  the  stars  : 
for  one  star  diflfereth  from  another  star  in  glory.  So  also  is  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead.  It  is  sown  in  corruption  ;  it  is  raised  in 
incorruption  :  it  is  sown  in  dishonour ;  it  is  raised  in  glory:  it  is  sown 
in  weakness;  it  is  raised  in  power:  it  is  sown  a  natural  body;  it  is 
raised  a  spiritual  body.  There  is  a  natural  body,  and  there  is  a 
spiritual  body.  And  so  it  is  written,  The  first  man  Adam  was  made 
a  living  soul ;  the  last  Adam  was  made  a  quickening  spirit.  Hovvbeit 
that  was  not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natural ;  and 
afterward  that  which  is  spiritual.  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth, 
earthy  :  the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven.  As  is  the  earthy, 
such  are  they  also  that  are  earthy  :  and  as  is  the  heavenly,  such  are 
they  also  that  are  heavenly.  And  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the 
earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly'.  Now  this  I 
sa}',  brethren,  that  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of 
God ;  neither  doth  corruption  inherit  incorruption.  Behold,  I  show 
you  a  mystery;  We  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be  changed, 
in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  at  the  last  trump  ;  for  the 
trumpet  shall  sound,  and  the  dead  shall  be  raised  incorruptible,  and 
we  shall  be  changed.  For  this  corruptible  must  put  on  incorruption, 
and  this  mortal  must  put  on  immortality.  So  when  this  corruptible 
shall  have  put  on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on 
immortality,  then  shall  be  brought  to  pass  the  saying  that  is  written, 
Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory.  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ? 
O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ?  The  sting  of  death  is  sin  ;  and  the 
strength  of  sin  is  the  law.  But  thanks  be  to  God,  which  giveth  us 
the  victory  tiirough  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Therefore,  my  beloved 
brethren,  be  ye  steadfast,  unmovable,  always  abounding  in  the  work 
of  the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  ye  know  that  your  labour  is  not  in  vain  in 
^hc  Lord." — I  Cor.  xv.  35-58. 


XXIV. 

THE  SPIRTTUAI   BODY. 

THE  proofs  of  the  Resurrection  which  Paul  has 
adduced  are  satisfactory.  So  long  as  they  are 
clearly  before  the  mind,  we  find  it  possible  to  believe 
in  that  great  experience  which  will  finally  give  us 
possession  of  the  life  to  come.  But  after  all  proof 
rises  doubt  irrepressible,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of 
understanding  the  process  through  which  the  body 
passes  and  the  nature  of  the  body  that  is  to  be. 
''  Some  man  will  say,  How  are  the  dead  raised  up  ? 
and  with  what  body  do  they  come  ?  "  Not  always  in 
an  unbelieving  or  scoffing  spirit,  often  in  mere  per- 
plexity and  justifiable  inquisitiveness,  will  men  ask 
these  questions. 

Paul  answers  both  inquiries  by  referring  to  analogies 
in  the  natural  world.  Only  by  death,  he  says,  does 
seed  reach  its  designed  development ;  and  the  body 
or  form  in  which  seed  rises  is  very  different  in  appear- 
ance from  that  in  which  it  is  sown.  These  analogies 
have  their  place  and  their  use  in  removing  objections 
and  difficulties.  They  are  not  intended  or  supposed 
to  establish  the  fact  of  the  Resurrection,  but  only  to 
remove  difficulties  as  to  its  mode.  By  analogy  you 
can  show  that  a  certain  process  or  result  is  not  impos- 
sible, you  m.ay  even  create  a  presumption  in  its  favour, 


374     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS, 


but  you  cannot  establish  it  as  an  actuality.  Analogy 
is  a  powerful  instrument  for  removing  objections,  but 
utterly  weak  for  establisl'.ing  positive  truth.  Seed 
lives  again  after  burial,  but  it  dees  not  follow  that  our 
bodies  will  do  so.  Seed  when  it  rots  away  beneath 
the  soil  gives  birth  to  a  better  thing  than  that  which 
was  sown,  but  this  is  no  proof  that  the  same  result 
will  follow  when  our  bodies  pass  through  a  similar 
treatment.  But  if  a  man  says,  as  Paul  here  supposes 
he  may,  "  Such  a  thing  as  this  resurrection  you  speak 
of  is  an  unnatural,  unheard-of,  and  impossible  thing," 
the  best  reply  is  to  point  him  to  some  analogous  pro- 
cess in  nature,  in  which  this  apparent  impossibility  or 
something  very  similar  is  actually  brought  to  pass. 

Even  outside  the  circle  of  Christian  thought  these 
analogies  in  nature  have  always  been  felt  to  remove 
some  of  the  presumptions  against  the  Resurrection  and 
to  make  room  for  listening  to  evidence  in  its  favour. 
The  transformation  of  the  seed  into  the  plant  and  the 
development  of  the  seed  to  a  fuller  Hfe  through  apparent 
extinction,  the  transformation  of  the  grub  into  the 
brilliant  and  powerful  dragon-fly  through  a  process 
which  terminates  the  life  of  the  grub — these  and  other 
natural  facts  show  that  one  life  may  be  continued 
through  various  phases,  and  that  the  termination  of  one 
form  of  life  does  not  always  mean  the  termination  of 
all  Hfe  in  a  creature.  We  need  not,  these  analogies 
tell  us,  at  once  conclude  that  death  ends  all,  for  in 
some  visible  instances  death  is  only  a  birth  to  a  higher 
and  freer  life.  Neither  need  we  point  to"  the  dissolution 
of  the  natural  body  and  conclude  that  no  more  perfect 
body  can  be  connected  with  such  a  process,  because 
in  many  cases  we  see  a  more  efficient  body  disengaged 
from  the  original  and  dissolving  body.     Thus  far  the 


XV.  35-38.]  THE  SPIRITUAL   BODY.  375 

analogies  carry  us.  It  is  doubtful  whether  they  should 
be  pushed  further,  although  they  might  seem  to  indicate 
that  the  new  body  is  not  to  be  a  new  creation,  but  is  to 
be  produced  by  virtue  of  what  is  already  in  existence. 
The  new  body  is  not  to  be  irrespective  of  what  has 
gone  before,  but  is  to  be  the  natural  result  of  causes 
already  working.  What  these  causes  are,  or  how  the 
spirit  is  to  impress  its  character  on  the  body,  we  do 
not  know. 

It  is  not  impossible,  then,  nor  even  quite  improbable, 
that  the  death  of  our  present  body  may  set  free  a  new 
and  far  more  perfectly  equipped  body.  The  fact  that 
we  cannot  conceive  the  nature  of  this  body  need  not 
trouble  us.  Who  without  previous  observation  could 
imagine  what  would  spring  from  an  acorn  or  a  seed 
of  wheat  ?  To  each  God  gives  its  own  body.  We 
cannot  imagine  what  our  future  body,  subject  to  no 
waste  or  decay,  can  be;  but  we  need  not  on  that 
account  reject  as  childish  all  expectation  that  such  a 
body  shall  exist.  "All  flesh  is  not  the  same  flesh." 
The  kind  of  flesh  you  now  wear  may  be  unfit  for 
everlasting  life,  but  there  may  await  you  as  suitable 
and  congenial  a  body  as  3^our  present  familiar  tenement. 
Consider  the  inexhaustible  fertility  of  God,  the  endless 
varieties  already  existing  in  nature.  The  bird  has  a 
body  which  fits  it  for  life  in  the  air ;  the  fish  lives 
with  comfort  in  its  own  element.  And  the  variety 
already  existing  does  not  exhaust  God's  resources. 
We  read  at  present  but  one  chapter  in  the  history  of 
life,  and  what  future  chapters  are  to  unfold  who  can 
imagine  ?  A  fertile  and  inventive  man  knows  no  bound 
to  his  progress ;  will  God  stand  still  ?  Are  we  not 
but  at  the  beginning  of  His  works  ?  May  we  not 
reasonably  suppose  that  a  truly  infinite  expansion  and 


376     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

development  await  God's  works  ?  Is  it  not  entirely 
unreasonable  to  suppose  that  what  we  see  and  know 
is  the  measure  of  God's  resources  ? 

Paul  does  not  attempt  to  describe  the  future  body, 
but  contents  himself  with  pointing  out  one  or  two  of 
its  characteristics  by  which  it  is  distinguished  from 
the  body  we  now  wear.  "  It  is  sown  in  corruption  ; 
it  is  raised  in  incorruption  :  it  is  sown  in  dishonour ; 
it  is  raised  in  glory  :  it  is  sown  in  weakness ;  it  is  raised 
in  power :  it  is  sown  a  natural  body ;  it  is  raised  a 
spiritual  body."  In  this  body  there  is  decay,  humilia- 
tion, weakness,  a  life  that  is  merely  temporary  ;  in  the 
body  that  is  to  be  decay  gives  place  to  incorruptibility, 
humiliation  to  glory,  weakness  to  power,  animal  life 
to  spiritual. 

The  present  body  is  subject  to  decay.  Not  only  is 
it  easily  injured  by  accident  and  often  rendered  per- 
manently useless,  but  it  is  so  constituted  that  all 
activity  wastes  it ;  and  this  waste  needs  constant  repair. 
That  we  may  constantly  seek  this  repair,  we  are 
endowed  with  strong  appetites,  which  sometimes  over- 
bear everything  else  in  us  and  both  defeat  their  own 
ends  and  hinder  the  growth  of  the  spirit.  The  organs 
by  which  the  waste  is  repaired  themselves  wear  out, 
so  that  by  no  care  or  nourishment  can  a  man  make 
out  to  live  as  long  as  a  tree.  But  the  very  decay  of 
this  body  makes  way  for  one  in  which  there  shall  be  no 
waste,  no  need  of  physical  nourishment,  and  therefore 
no  need  of  strong  and  overbearing  physical  appetites. 
Instead  of  impeding  the  spirit  by  clamouring  to  have 
its  wants  attended  to,  it  will  be  the  spirit's  instrument. 
A  great  part  of  the  temptations  of  this  present  life 
arise  from  the  conditions  in  which  we  necessarily  exist 
as  dependent  for  our  ccmfort  in  great  measure  on  the 


XV.  35-38.]  THE  SPIRITUAL  BODY.  377 

body.  And  one  can  scarcely  conceive  the  feeling  of 
emancipation  and  superiority  which  will  possess  those 
who  have  no  anxiety  about  a  livelihood,  no  fear  of 
death,  no  distraction  of  appetite. 

The  present  body  is  for  similar  reasons  characterized 
by  "  weakness."  We  cannot  be  where  we  would,  nor 
do  what  we  would.  A  man  may  work  his  twelve  hours, 
but  he  must  then  acknowledge  he  has  a  body  which 
needs  rest  and  sleep.  Many  persons  are  disqualified 
by  bodily  weakness  from  certain  forms  of  usefulness 
and  enjoyment.  Many  persons  also,  though  able  to 
do  a  certain  amount  of  work,  do  it  with  labour  ;  their 
vitality  is  habitually  low,  and  they  never  have  the  full 
use  of  their  powers,  but  need  continually  to  be  on 
their  guard,  and  go  through  life  burdened  with  a 
lassitude  and  discomfort  more  difficult  to  bear  than 
passing  attacks  of  pain.  In  contradistinction  to  this 
and  to  every  form  of  weakness,  the  resurrection  body 
will  be  full  of  power,  able  to  accomplish  the  behests 
of  the  will,  and  fit  for  all  that  is  required  of  it. 

But  the  most  comprehensive  contrast  between  the 
two  bodies  is  expressed  in  the  words,  "  It  is  sown  a 
natural  body  ;  it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body."  A  natural 
body  is  that  which  is  animated  by  a  human  life  and  is 
fitted  for  this  world.  ^'  The  first  man  Adam  was  made 
a  living  soul,"  or,  as  we  should  more  naturally  say,  an 
animal.  He  was  made  with  a  capacity  for  living ;  and 
because  he  was  to  live  upon  earth,  he  had  a  body  in 
which  this  life  or  soul  was  lodged.  The  natural  body 
is  the  body  we  receive  at  birth,  and  which  is  suited  for 
its  own  requirements  of  maintaining  itself  in  Hfe  in  this 
world  into  which  we  are  born.  The  soul,  or  animal  life, 
of  man  is  higher  than  that  of  the  other  animals,  it  has 
richer  endowments  and  capacities,    but    it    is  also  in 


378     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

many  respects  similar.  Many  men  are  quite  content 
with  the  merely  animal  life  which  this  world  upholds 
and  furnishes.  They  find  enough  to  satisfy  them  in 
its  pleasures,  its  work,  its  affairs,  its  friendships  ;  and 
for  all  these  the  natural  body  is  sufficient.  The 
thoughtful  man  cannot  indeed  but  look  forward  and  ask 
himself  what  is  to  become  of  this  body.  If  he  turns  to 
Scripture  for  light,  he  will  probably  be  struck  with  the 
fact  that  it  sheds  no  light  whatever  on  the  future  of  the 
natural  body.  Those  who  are  in  Christ  enter  into 
possession  of  a  spiritual  body,  but  there  is  no  hint  of 
any  more  perfect  body  being  prepared  for  those  who 
are  not  in  Christ. 

The  spiritual  body,  which  is  reserved  for  spiritual 
men,  is  a  body  in  which  the  upholding  life  is  spiritual. 
The  natural  life  of  man  both  forms  to  a  human  shape 
and  upholds  the  natural  body  ;  the  spiritual  body  is 
similarly  maintained  by  what  is  spiritual  in  man.  It  is 
the  soul,  or  natural  life,  of  man  which  gives  the  body  its 
appetites  and  maintains  it  in  efficiency;  remove  this 
soul,  and  the  body  is  mere  dead  matter.  In  like  manner 
it  is  the  spirit  which  maintains  the  spiritual  body  ;  and 
by  the  spirit  is  meant  that  in  man  which  can  delight  in 
God  and  in  goodness.  The  body  we  now  have  is 
miserable  and  useless  or  happy  and  serviceable  in 
proportion  to  its  animal  vitality,  in  proportion  to  its 
power  to  assimilate  to  itself  the  nutriment  this  physical 
world  supplies.  The  spiritual  body  will  be  healthy  or 
sickly  in  proportion  to  the  spiritual  vitality  that 
animates  it ;  that  is  to  say,  in  proportion  to  the  power 
of  the  individual  spirit  to  delight  in  God  and  find  its 
life  in  Him  and  in  what  He  lives  for. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Paul  refuses  to  consider 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  as  miraculous  in  the  sense  of 


XV.  35-38.]  THE  SPIRITUAL  BODY.  379 

its  being  unique  or  abnormal ;  on  the  contrary,  he  con- 
siders resurrection  to  be  an  essential  step  in  normal 
human  development,  and  therefore  experienced  b}' 
Christ.  And  now  he  enunciates  the  great  principle  or 
law  which  governs  not  only  this  fact  of  resurrection,  but 
the  -whole  evolution  of  God's  works  :  "first  that  which 
is  natural,  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual."  It  is  this 
law  which  we  see  ruling  the  history  of  creation  and  the 
history  of  man.  The  spiritual  is  the  culminating  point 
towards  which  all  the  processes  of  nature  tend.  The 
gradual  development  of  what  is  spiritual,  of  will,  of 
love,  of  moral  excellence — this,  so  far  as  man  can  see, 
is  the  end  towards  which  all  nature  constantly  and 
steadily  is  working. 

Sometimes,  however,  it  occurs  to  one  to  question  the 
law  "  first  that  which  is  natural,  afterward  that  which 
is  spiritual."  If  the  present  body  hinders  rather  than 
helps  the  growth  of  the  spirit,  if  at  last  all  Christians 
are  to  have  a  spiritual  body,  why  might  we  not  have 
had  this  body  to  begin  with  ?  What  need  of  this 
mysterious  process  of  passing  from  life  to  life  and  from 
body  to  body  ?  If  it  is  true  that  we  are  here  only  for 
a  few  years  and  in  the  future  life  for  ever,  why  should 
we  be  here  at  all  ?  Why  might  we  not  at  birth  have 
been  ushered  into  our  eternal  state  ?  The  answer  is 
obvious.  We  are  not  at  once  introduced  into  our 
eternal  condition  because  we  are  moral  creatures,  free 
to  choose  for  ourselves,  and  who  cannot  enter  an  eternal 
state  save  by  choice  of  our  own :  first  that  which  is 
natural,  first  that  which  is  animal,  first  a  Hfe  in  which 
we  have  abundant  opportunity  to  test  what  appears 
good  and  are  free  to  make  our  choice;  then  that 
which  is  spiritual,  because  the  spiritual  can  only  be  a 
thing   of  choice,    a   thing   of  the   will.     There  is   no 


i/' 


38o     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

spiritual  life  or  spiritual  birth  save  by  the  will.  Men 
can  become  spiritual  only  by  choosing  to  be  so.  In- 
voluntary, compulsor}^,  necessitated,  natural  spirituality 
is,  so  far  as  man  is  concerned,  a  contradiction  in 
terms. 

Human  nature  is  a  thing  of  immense  possibilities 
and  range.  On  the  one  side  it  is  akin  to  the  lower 
animals,  to  the  physical  world  and  all  that  is  in  it,  high 
and  low ;  on  the  other  side  it  is  akin  to  the  highest 
of  all  spiritual  existences,  even  to  God  Himself  At 
present  we  are  in  a  world  admirably  adapted  for  our 
probation  and  discipline,  a  world  in  which,  in  point  of 
fact,  every  man  does  attach  himself  to  the  lower  or  to 
the  higher,  to  the  present  or  to  the  eternal,  to  the 
natural  or  to  the  spiritual.  And  although  the  results 
of  this  may  not  be  apparent  in  average  cases,  yet  in 
extreme  cases  the  results  of  human  choice  are 
obtrusively  apparent.  Let  a  man  give  himself  un- 
restrainedly and  exclusively  to  animal  life  in  its  grosser 
forms,  and  the  body  itself  soon  begins  to  suffer.  You 
can  see  the  process  of  physical  deterioration  going  on, 
deepening  in  misery,  until  death  comes.  But  what 
follows  death  ?  Can  one  promise  himself  or  another 
a  future  body  which  shall  be  exempt  from  the  pains 
which  unrepented  sin  has  introduced  ?  Are  those  who 
have  by  their  vice  committed  a  slow  suicide  to  be 
clothed  hereafter  in  an  incorruptible  and  efficient  body  ? 
It  seems  wholly  contrary  to  reason  to  suppose  so. 
And  how  can  their  probation  be  continued  if  the  very 
circumstance  which  makes  this  life  so  thorough  a  pro- 
bation to  us  all — the  circumstance  of  our  being  clothed 
with  a  body — is  absent  ?  The  truth  is,  there  is  no 
subject  on  which  more  darkness  hangs  or  on  which 
Scripture  preserves  so  ominous  a  silence  as  the  future 


XV.  35-38.]  THE  SPIRITUAL  BODY.  381 

of  the  body  of  those  who  in  this  life  have  not  chosen 
God  and  things  spiritual  as  their  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  we  consider  instances  in  which 
the  spiritual  life  has  been  resolutely  and  unreservedly 
chosen,  we  see  anticipations  here  also  of  the  future 
destiny  of  those  who  have  so  chosen.  They  may  be 
crushed  by  diseases  as  painful  and  as  fatal  as  the 
most  flagrant  of  sinners  endure,  but  these  diseases 
frequently  have  the  result  only  of  making  the  true 
spiritual  life  shine  more  brightly.  In  extreme  cases, 
you  would  almost  say,  the  transmutation  of  the 
tortured  and  worn  body  into  a  glorified  body  is  begun. 
The  spirit  seems  dominant ;  and  as  you  stand  by  and 
watch,  you  begin  to  feel  that  death  has  no  relation  to  the 
emotions,  and  hopes,  and  intercourse  you  detect  in  that 
spirit.  These,  which  seem,  and  are,  the  very  life  of  the 
spirit,  cannot  be  thought  of  as  terminated  by  a  merely 
physical  change.  They  do  not  spring  from,  nor  do 
they  depend  upon,  what  is  physical ;  and  it  is  i*icasonable 
to  suppose  that  they  will  not  be  destroyed  by  it. 
Looking  at  Christ  Himself  and  allowing  due  impression 
to  be  made  upon  us  by  His  concernment  about  the 
highest,  and  best,  and  most  lasting  things,  by  His 
recognition  of  God  and  harmony  with  Him,  by  His 
living  in  God,  and  by  His  superiority  to  earthly  con- 
siderations, we  cannot  but  feel  it  to  be  most  unlikely 
that  such  a  spirit  should  be  extinguished  by  bodily 
death. 

This  spiritual  body  we  receive  through  the  inter- 
vention of  Christ.  As  from  the  first  man  we  receive 
animal  life,  from  the  second  we  receive  spiritual  life. 
**  The  first  man  Adam  was  made  a  living  soul,  the 
last  Adam  a  quickening  spirit.  And  as  we  have 
borne  the  image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the 


image  of  the  heavenly."  The  image  of  the  first  man 
we  have  by  our  natural  and  physical  derivation  from 
him,  the  image  of  the  second  by  spiritual  derivation  ; 
that  is  to  say,  by  our  choosing  Christ  as  our  ideal 
and  by  our  allowing  His  Spirit  to  form  us.  This  Spirit 
is  life-giving ;  this  Spirit  is  indeed  God,  communicating 
to  us  a  life  which  is  at  once  holy  and  eternal. 

The  mode  of  Christ's  intervention  is  more  fully 
described  in  the  words,  "  The  sting  of  death  is  sin  ; 
and  the  strength  of  sin  is  the  law.  But  thanks  be  to 
God,  which  giveth  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  Everywhere  Paul  teaches  that  it  was 
sin  which  brought  death  upon  man ;  that  man  would 
have  broken  through  the  law  of  death  which  reigns 
in  the  physical  world  had  he  not  by  sin  brought  him- 
self under  the  power  of  things  physical.  And  this 
poisonous  fang  w^as  pressed  in  by  the  Law.  The 
strength  of  sin  is  the  Law.  It  is  positive  disobedience, 
the  preference  of  known  evil  to  know^n  good,  the 
violation  of  law  whether  written  in  the  conscience  or 
in  spoken  commandments,  which  gives  sin  its  moral 
character.  The  choice  of  the  evil  in  presence  of  the 
good — it  is  that  which  constitutes  sin. 

The  words  are  no  doubt  susceptible  of  another 
meaning.  They  could  be  used  by  one  who  wished 
to  say  that  sin  is  that  which  makes  death  painful, 
which  adds  terror  of  future  judgment  and  gloomy  fore- 
bodings to  the  natural  pain  of  death.  But  it  must  be 
owned  that  this  is  not  so  much  in  keeping  wdth  Paul's 
usual  way  of  looking  at  the  connection  between  death 
and  sin. 

Christ's  victory  over  death  is  thus  explained  by 
Godet :  "  Christ's  victory  over  death  has  two  aspects, 
the  one  relating  to  Himself,  the  other  concerning  men. 


XV.  35-38.]  THE  SPIRITUAL  BODY.  383 

He  first  of  all  conquered  sin  in  relation  to  Himself  by 
denying  to  it  the  right  of  existence  in  Him,  condemning 
it  to  non-existence  in  His  flesh,  similar  though  it  was 
to  our  sinful  flesh  (Rom.  viii.  3)  ;  and  thereby  He 
disarmed  the  Law  so  far  as  it  concerned  Himself.  His 
life  being  the  Law  in  living  realization,  He  had  it  for 
Him,  and  not  against  Him.  This  twofold  personal 
victory  was  the  foundation  of  His  own  resurrection. 
Thereafter  He  continued  to  act  that  this  victory  might 
extend  to  us.  And  first  He  freed  us  from  the  burden 
of  condemnation  which  the  Law  laid  on  us,  and  whereby 
it  was  ever  interposing  between  us  and  communion 
with  God.  He  recognised  in  our  name  the  right  of 
God  over  the  sinner ;  He  consented  to  satisfy  it  to  the 
utmost  in  His  own  person.  Whoever  appropriates 
this  death  as  undergone  in  his  room  and  stead  and 
for  himself,  sees  the  door  of  reconciliation  to  God 
open  before  him,  as  if  he  had  himself  expiated  all  his 
sins.  The  separation  established  by  the  Law  no  longer 
exists  ;  the  Law  is  disarmed.  By  that  very  fact  sin 
also  is  vanquished.  Reconciled  to  God,  the  believer 
receives  Christ's  Spirit,  who  works  in  him  an  absolute 
breach  of  will  with  sin  and  complete  devotion  to  God. 
The  yoke  of  sin  is  at  an  end  ;  the  dominion  of  God 
is  restored  in  the  heart.  The  two  foundations  of  the 
reign  of  death  are  thus  destroyed.  Let  Christ  appear, 
and  this  reign  will  crumble  in  the  dust  for  ever." 

It  is  then  with  joy  and  triumph  Paul  contemplates 
death.  Naturally  we  shrink  from  and  fear  it.  We 
know  it  only  from  one  side :  only  from  seeing  it  in  the  t 
persons  of  other  men,  and  not  from  our  own  experience.  )\ 
And  what  we  see  in  others  is  necessarily  only  the 
darker  side  of  death,  the  cessation  of  bodily  Hfe  and 
of  all  intercourse  Vv  ith  the  warm  and  lively  interests  of 


384     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

the  world.  It  is  a  condition  exciting  tears,  and  moaning, 
and  grief  in  those  that  remain  in  life ;  and  though 
these  tears  arise  chiefly  from  our  own  sense  of  loss, 
yet  insensibly  we  think  of  the  condition  of  the  dead 
as  a  state  to  be  bewailed.  We  see  the  sowing  in  weak- 
ness, in  dishonour,  in  corruption,  as  Paul  says ;  and  we 
do  not  see  the  glory,  and  strength,  and  incorruption 
of  the  spiritual  body.  The  dead  may  be  in  bright 
regions  and  be  living  a  keener  life  than  ever ;  but  of 
this  we  see  nothing :  and  all  we  do  see  is  sad,  de- 
pressing, humiliating. 

But  to  "  faith's  foreseeing  eye "  the  other  side  of 
death  becomes  also  apparent.  The  grave  becomes  the 
robing  room  for  Hfe  eternal.  Stripped  of  "  this  muddy 
vesture  of  decay,"  we  are  there  to  be  clothed  with  a 
spiritual  body.  Death  is  enlisted  in  the  service  of  Christ's 
people ;  and  by  destroying  flesh  and  blood,  it  enables 
this  mortal  to  put  on  immortality.  The  blow  which 
threatens  to  crush  and  annihilate  all  life  breaks  but 
the  shell  and  lets  the  imprisoned  spirit  free  to  a  larger 
life.  Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory,  and  itself 
ministers  to  the  final  triumph  of  man.  Our  instincts 
tell  us  that  death  is  critical  and  has  a  determining 
power  on  our  destinies.  We  cannot  evade  it ;  we  may 
depreciate  or  neglect,  but  we  cannot  diminish,  its  im- 
portance. It  has  its  place  and  its  function,  and  it  v/ill 
operate  in  each  one  of  us  according  to  what  it  finds 
in  us,  destroying  what  is  merely  animal,  emancipating 
what  is  truly  spiritual.  We  cannot  as  yet  stand  on 
the  further  side  of  death,  and  look  back  on  it,  and 
recognise  its  kindly  work  in  us  ;  but  we  can  understand 
Paul's  burst  of  anticipated  triumph,  and  with  him  we 
can  forecast  the  joy  of  having  passed  all  doubtful 
struggle  and  anxious  foreboding,  and  of  finally  experi- 


THE  SPIRITUAL  BODY.  385 

encing  that  all  the  evils  of  humanity  have  been  over- 
come. With  a  triumph  so  complete  in  view,  we  can 
also  listen  to  his  exhortation,  ^'  Therefore,  my  beloved 
brethren,  be  ye  steadfast,  unmovable,  always  abounding 
in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  ye  know  that 
your  labour  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord." 

But  if  we  have  any  fit  conception  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  triumph,  we  shall  also  cherish  some  worthy  ides 
of  the  reality  of  the  conflict.  Those  who  have  felt  the 
terror  of  death  know  that  it  can  be  counterbalanced 
only  by  something  more  than  a  surmise,  a  hope,  a 
longing,  only  indeed  by  a  fact  as  solid  as  itself.  And 
if  to  them  the  resurrection  of  Christ  approves  itself  as 
such  a  fact,  and  if  they  can  listen  to  His  voice  saying, 
"  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also,"  they  do  feel  them- 
selves armed  against  the  graver  terrors  of  death,  and 
cannot  but  look  forward  with  some  confident  hope  to  a 
life  into  which  the  ills  they  have  here  experienced 
cannot  follow  them.  But  at  the  same  time,  and  in  pro- 
portion as  the  reality  of  the  future  life  quickens  hope 
within  them,  it  must  also  reveal  to  them  the  reality  of 
the  conflict  through  which  that  life  is  reached.  By  no 
mere  idle  naming  of  the  name  of  Christ  or  resultless 
faith  in  Him  can  men  pass  from  what  is  natural  to 
what  is  spiritual.  We  are  summoned  to  believe  in 
Christ,  but  for  a  purpose ;  and  that  purpose  is  that, 
believing  in  Him  as  the  revelation  of  God  to  us,  we 
may  be  able  to  choose  Him  as  our  pattern  and  live  His 
life.  It  is  only  what  is  truly  spiritual  in  ourselves  that 
can  put  us  in  possession  of  a  spiritual  body.  Fiom 
Christ  we  can  receive  what  is  spiritual ;  and  if  our 
belief  in  Him  prompts  us  to  become  Hke  Him,  then  we 
may  count  upon  sharing  in  His  destiny. 

This  is  the  permanent  incentive  of  the  Cliiistian  life. 

25 


3S6     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO    THE   COKINTH/ANS. 

This  present  experience  of  ours  leads  to  a  larger,  more 
satisfying  experience.  Beyond  our  horizon  there 
awaits  us  an  endlessly  enlarging  world.  Death,  which 
seems  to  bound  our  view,  is  really  but  our  real  birth  to 
a  fuller,  and  eternal,  and  true  life.  "  Therefore  be  ye 
steadfast,  unmovable,  always  abounding  in  the  work 
of  the  Lord."  The  promptings  of  conscience  do  not 
delude  you  ;  your  instinctive  hopes  will  not  be  put  to 
shame ;  your  faith  is  reasonable  ;  there  is  a  life  beyond. 
And  no  effort  you  now  put  forth  will  prove  vain  ;  no 
prayer,  no  earnest  desire,  no  struggle  towards  what  is 
spiritual,  will  fail  of  its  effect.  All  that  is  spiritual  is 
destined  to  live ;  it  belongs  to  the  eternal  world  :  and 
all  that  you  do  in  the  Spirit,  all  mastery  of  self,  and  the 
world,  and  the  flesh,  all  devoted  fellowship  with  God — • 
all  is  giving  you  a  surer  place  and  a  more  abundant 
entrance  into  the  spiritual  world,  for  '^  your  labour  is 
not  in  vain  in  the  Lord." 


THE  POOR. 


*•  Now  concerning  the  collection  for  the  saints,  as  I  have  given  order 
to  the  Churches  of  Galatia,  even  so  do  ye.     Upon  the  first  day  of  the 
week  let  every  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store,  as  God  hath  prospered 
him,  that  there  be  no  gatherings  when  I  come.     And  when  I  come, 
whomsoever  ye  shall  approve  by  your  letters,  them  will  I  send  to 
bring  your  liberality  unto  Jerusalem.     And  if  it  be  meet  that  I  go 
also,  they  shall  go  with  me.     Now  I  will  come  unto  you,  when  I  shall 
pass  through  Macedonia  :  for  I  do  pass  through  Macedonia.     And  it 
may  be  that  I  will  abide,  yea,  and  winter  with  you,  that  ye  may  bring 
me  on  my  journey  whithersoever  I  go.     For  I  will  not  see  you  now 
by  the  way  ;  but  I  trust  to  tarry  a  while  with  you,  if  the  Lord  permit. 
But  I  will  tarry  at  Ephesus  until  Pentecost.     For  a  great  door  and 
effectual  is  opened  unto  me,  and  there  are  many  adversaries.     Now 
if  Timotheus  come,  see  that  he  may  be  with  you  without  fear:  for  he 
workcth  the  work  of  the  Lord,  as  I  also  do.     Let  no  man  therefore 
despise  him :  but  conduct  him  forth  in  peace,  that  he  may  come  unto 
me  :  for  I  look  for  him  with  the  brethren.     As  touching  our  brother 
Apollos,  I  greatly  desired  him  to  come  unto  you  with  the  brethren : 
but  his  will  was  not  at  all  to  come  at  this  time ;  but  he  will  come 
when  he  shall  have  convenient  time.     Watch  ye,  stand  fast  in  the 
faith,  quit  you  like  men,  be  strong.     Let  all  your  things  be  done  with 
charity.     I  beseech  you,  brethren,  (ye  know  the  house  of  Stephanas, 
that  it  is  the  first-fruits  of  Achaia,  and  that  they  have  addicted  them- 
selves to  the  ministry  of  the  saints,)  that  ye  submit  yourselves  unto 
such,  and  to  every  one  that  helpeth  with  us,  and  labourcth.     I  am 
glad  of  the  coming  of  Stephanas  and  Fortunatus  and  Achaicus:  for 
that  which  was  lacking  on  your  part  they  have  supplied.     For  they 
have  refreshed  my  spirit  and  yours:  therefore  acknowledge  ye  them 
that   are    such.     The   Churches   of  Asia    salute   you.      Aquila   and 
Priscilla  salute  you  much  in  the  Lord,  with  the  Church  that  is  in 
their  house.     All  the  brethren  greet  you.     Greet  ye  one  another  with 
an  holy  kiss.     The  salutation  of  me  Paul  with  mine  own  hand.     If 
any    man    love    not    the    Lord   Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be   Anathema 
Maran-atha.     The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Chiist  be  with  you.     My 
love  be  with  you  all  in  Christ  Jesus.    Amen." — i  Cor.  xvi. 


XXV. 

THE  POOR. 

IN  closing  his  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  Paul,  as  usual, 
explains  his  own  movements,  and  adds  a  number 
of  miscellaneous  directions  and  salutations.  These  for 
the  most  part  relate  to  matters  of  merely  temporary 
interest,  and  call  for  no  comment.  Interest  of  a  more 
permanent  kind  unfortunately  attaches  to  the  collection 
for  the  poor  Christians  oi  Jerusalem  which  Paul 
invites  the  Corinthians  to  make.  Several  causes  had 
contributed  to  this  poverty ;  and,  among  others,  it  is 
not  improbable  that  the  persecution  promoted  by  Paul 
himself  had  an  important  place.  Many  Christians 
were  driven  from  their  homes,  and  many  more  must 
have  lost  their  means  of  earning  a  livelihood.  But  it 
is  likely  that  Paul  was  anxious  to  relieve  this  poverty, 
not  so  much  because  it  had  been  partly  caused  by 
himself  as  because  he  saw  in  it  an  opportunity  for 
bringing  more  closely  together  the  two  great  parties 
in  the  Church.  In  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  Paul 
teils  us  that  the  three  leaders  of  the  Jev/ish  Christian 
Church — James,  Peter,  and  John — when  they  had 
assured  themselves  that  this  new  Apostle  was  trust- 
worthy, gave  him  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  on  the 
understanding  that  he  should  minister  to  the  Gentiles, 
*'only,"    he  adds — ''only  they   would   that  we  should 


390     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

remember  the  poor,  the  same  which  I  also  was  forward 
to  do."  Accordingly  we  find  him  seeking  to  interest 
the  Gentile  Churches  in  their  Jewish  brethren,  and 
of  such  importance  did  he  consider  the  relief  that  was 
to  be  sent  to  Jerusalem  that  he  himself  felt  it  an 
honour  to  be  the  bearer  of  it.  He  saw  that  no 
doctrinal  explanations  were  likely  to  be  so  fruitful  in 
kindly  feeling  and  true  unity  as  this  simple  expression 
of  brotherly  kindness. 

In  our  own  day  poverty  has  assumed  a  much  more 
serious  aspect.  It  is  not  the  poverty  which  results 
from  accident,  nor  even  that  which  results  from  wrong- 
doing or  indolence,  which  presses  for  consideration.. 
Such  poverty  could  easily  be  met  by  individual  charity 
or  national  institutions.  But  the  poverty  we  are  now 
confronted  with  is  a  poverty  which  necessarily  results 
from  the  principle  of  competition  which  is  the  main- 
spring of  all  trade  and  business.  It  is  the  poverty 
which  results  from  the  constant  effort  of  every  man 
to  secure  custom  by  offering  a  cheaper  article,  and  to 
secure  employment  by  selling  his  labour  at  a  cheaper 
rate  than  his  neighbour.  So  overstocked  is  the  labour- 
market  that  the  employer  can  name  his  own  terms. 
Where  he  wants  one  man,  a  hundred  offer  their  services  ; 
and  he  who  can  live  most  cheaply  secures  the  place. 
So  that  necessarily  wages  are  pressed  down  by  com- 
petition to  the  very  lowest  figure ;  and  wherever  any 
trade  is  not  strong  enough  to  combine  and  resist  this 
constant  pressure,  the  results  are  appalling.  No  slaves 
were  ever  so  hunger-bitten,  no  lives  were  ever  more 
crushed  under  perpetual  and  hopeless  toil,  than  are 
thousands  of  our  fellow-countrymen  and  countrywomen 
in  our  own  time.  It  is  the  fact  that  in  all  our 
large  cities   there   are   thousands  of  persons  who   by 


THE  POOR.  391 


working  sixteen  hours  a  day  earn  only  what  suffices 
to  maintain  the  most  wretched  existence.  Every  day 
hundreds  of  children  are  being  born  to  a  life  of  hopeless 
toil  and  misery,  unrelieved  by  any  of  the  comforts  or 
joys  of  the  well-to-do. 

The  most  painful  and  alarming  feature  of  this  con- 
dition of  things  is,  as  every  one  knows,  that  it  seems 
the  inevitable  result  of  the  principles  on  which  our 
entire  social  fabric  is  built.  Every  invention,  every 
new  method  of  facilitating  business,  every  contrivance 
or  improvement  in  machinery,  makes  life  more  difficult 
to  the  mass  of  men.  The  very  advances  made  by 
civilfeed  nations  in  the  rapid  production  of  needful 
articles  increase  the  breach  between  rich  and  poor, 
throwing  larger  resources  into  the  hands  of  the  few, 
but  making  the  lot  of  the  many  still  darker  and  more 
poverty-stricken.  Every  year  makes  the  darkness 
deeper,  the  distress  more  urgent.  Here  individual 
charity  is  unavailing.  It  is  not  the  relief  of  one  here 
or  there  that  is  needed ;  it  is  the  alteration  of  a  system 
of  things  which  inevitably  produces  such  results.  In- 
dividual charity  is  here  a  mere  mop  in  the  face  of  the 
tide.  What  is  wanted  is  not  larger  workhouses  where 
the  aged  poor  may  be  sheltered,  but  such  a  system  as 
will  enable  the  working  man  to  provide  for  himself 
against  old  age.  What  is  wanted  is  not  that  the 
charitable  should  eke  out  by  voluntary  contributions 
the  earnings  of  the  labouring  classes,  but  that  these 
earnings  should  be  such  as  to  amply  cover  all  ordinary 
human  wants.  "  Money  given  in  aid  of  wages  relieves 
the  employer,  not  the  employed ;  reduces  wages,  not 
misery."  What  is  wanted  is  a  social  system  which 
tends  to  bring  Vv-ithin  the  reach  of  all  the  comforts  and 
the  joys   of  life  which  men   legitimately  desire,   and 


392     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

which  does  not  tend,  as  our  present  social  system  does, 
to  overload  a  small  number  of  men  with  more  wealth 
than  they  need,  or  desire,  or  can  use,  while  the  millions 
are  crushed  with  toil  and  pinched  with  semi- starvation. 
What  the  working  classes  at  present  demand  is,  not 
charity,  but  justice.  The}'  do  not  wish  to  seem  to  be 
indebted  to  others  for  support  which  they  feel  they 
have  toiled  for  and  earned.  They  require  a  social 
system,  in  which  the  honest  toil  of  a  lifetime  shall  be 
sufficient  to  secure  the  toiler  and  his  family  from  the 
dangers  and  degradation  of  utter  poverty. 

That  a  change  is  desirable  no  one  who  has  spent 
two  thoughts  on  the  subject  can  doubt.  The  only 
question  is,  What  change  is  desirable  and  possible  ?  Is 
there  any  organization  or  social  system  which  could 
check  the  evils  resulting  from  the  present  competitive 
system,  and  secure  that  every  one  who  is  willing  to 
work  should  be  furnished  with  remunerative  employ- 
ment ?  Socialists  are  quite  convinced  that  the  whole 
problem  would  be  solved  were  private  capital  to  be 
converted  into  co-operative  or  public  capital.  Socialism 
demands  that  society  shall  be  the  only  capitalist,  and 
that  all  private  captains  of  industry  and  capital  be 
aboHshed.  No  return  is  possible  to  the  state  of  things 
in  which  every  man  worked  by  himself  with  his  own 
hands  and  at  his  own  risk,  producing  his  one  or  two 
webs,  tilling  his  one  or  two  acres.  It  is  recognised 
that  far  more  and  better  products  can  be  produced 
when  manufactures  are  carried  on  in  large  factories. 
But  on  the  socialistic  principle  these  factories  must  be 
owned,  not  by  private  capitalists,  but  by  the  State,  oi 
at  any  rate  by  co-operative  societies  of  some  kind. 
This  is  the  essence  of  the  demand  of  Socialism  :  that 
*'  whereas  industry  is  at  present  carried  on  by  private 


THE  POOR,  393 


capitalists  served  by  wage-labour,  it  must  in  the  future 
be  conducted  by  associated  or  co-operating  workmen 
jointly  owning  the  means  of  production." 

The  difficulty  in  pronouncing  judgment  on  such  a 
demand  arises  from  the  fact  that  very  fev/  men  indeed 
have  sufficient  imagination  and  sufficient  knowledge 
of  our  complicated  social  system  to  be  able  to  forecast 
the  results  of  so  great  a  change.  In  the  present  stage 
of  human  progress  personal  interest  is  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  strongest  incentives  to  industry,  and  to  this 
motive  the  present  system  of  com.petition  appeals. 
And  although  Socialists  declare  that  their  system  would 
not  exclude  competition,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  field 
it  would  have  or  at  what  point  it  w^ould  find  its 
opportunity.  Certain  departmiCnts  of  industry  are 
already  in  the  hands  of  the  State  or  of  co-operative 
societies,  but  the  organization  of  all  industries  and  the 
management  and  remuneration  of  all  labour  demand  a 
machinery  so  colossal  that  it  is  feared  it  would  fall 
to  pieces  by  its  own  w^eight.  Still  it  is  possible 
that  ways  and  means  of  working  a  socialistic  scheme 
may  be  devised ;  and  it  is  quite  certain  that  if  any 
system  could  be  devised  which  is  really  workable,  and 
which  should  at  once  save  us  from  the  disastrous 
results  of  competition  and  yet  evoke  all  the  energy 
which  competition  evokes,  that  system  would  forth- 
with be  adopted  in  every  civilised  country. 

As  yet,  however,  no  such  social  system  has  been 
elaborated.  General  principles,  ruling  ideas,  theories, 
paper  plans,  have  been  enunciated  by  the  score ;  but,  in 
point  of  fact,  there  is  no  system  yet  devised  which 
appeals  either  to  the  common-sense  and  instincts  of 
the  masses,  or  which  stands  the  criticism  of  experts. 
And  some  of  those  who  have  given  greatest   attention 


394     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

to  social  subjects,  and  have  made  the  greatest  personal 
sacrifices  in  behalf  of  the  poor  and  down-trodden,  are 
inclined  to  believe  that  no  such  system  can  be  devised, 
and  that  deliverance  from  the  present  wretched  state 
of  matters  is  to  be  found,  not  in  compulsory  enactment, 
nor  even  in  the  sudden  adoption  of  a  different  social 
system,  but  in  the  application  of  Christian  principles 
to  the  working  of  the  present  competitive  system. 
That  is  to  say,  they  believe  that  true  progress  here, 
as  elsewhere,  begins  in  character,  not  in  outward 
organization,  or,  as  it  has  been  put,  that  "the  soul 
of  improvement  is  the  improvement  of  the  soul." 
They  consider  that  the  present  system  rests  on  un- 
changeable laws  of  human  nature,  but  that  if  men 
worked  that  system  with  consideration,  unworldliness, 
and  brotherly  kindness,  the  present  evil  results  would 
be  avoided.  Or  they  believe  that  it  is  at  any  rate 
useless  to  alter  the  present  system  violently  by  mere 
legislative  enactment  or  by  revolution,  but  that  if  it 
is  to  be  altered,  it  can  effectually,  and  permanently,  and 
beneficially  be  so  only  under  the  pressure  and  at  the 
dictation  of  an  improved  public  opinion. 

Appeal  is  confidently  made  to  the  mind  of  Christ 
by  both  parties,  both  by  those  who  trust  to  the 
enforcement  of  a  socialistic  scheme,  and  by  those  who 
believe  only  in  the  social  improvement  which  results 
from  the  improvement  of  the  individual.  By  the  one 
party  it  is  confidently  affirmed  that  were  Jesus  Christ 
now  on  earth  He  would  be  a  communist,  would  aim 
at  equalizing  all  classes  and  at  commuting  private 
property  into  a  public  fund.  Communism  has  been 
tried  to  some  extent  in  the  Church.  In  monastic 
societies  private  property  is  surrendered  for  the  good 
of  the  community,  and  this  practice  professes  to  find 


xvi.]  THE  POOR  395 

its  sanction  in  the  communism  of  the  primitive  Church. 
But  the  account  we  have  of  that  communism  shows 
that  it  was  neither  compulsory  nor  permanent.  It 
was  not  compulsory,  for  Peter  reminds  Ananias  that 
his  property  was  his  own,  and  that  even  after  he  had 
sold  it  he  was  at  liberty  to  do  what  he  pleased  with 
the  proceeds.  And  it  was  not  permanent  nor  universal, 
for  here  we  find  that  Paul  had  to  ask  contributions  for 
the  relief  of  the  poor  Christians  of  Jerusalem ;  while 
we  see  that  there  were  rich  and  poor  in  the  same 
congregations,  and  that  such  duties  as  almsgiving  and 
hospitality,  which  could  not  be  practised  without 
private  means,  were  enjoined  upon  Christians.  It  is 
also  obvious  that  many  of  the  duties  inculcated  in  the 
Epistles  of  Paul  could  not  be  discharged  in  a  society 
in  which  all  classes  were  levelled. 

It  is  perhaps  of  more  importance  to  observe  that  in 
probably  the  most  critical  period  of  the  world's  history 
our  Lord  took  no  part  in  any  political  movemient ;  nay, 
He  counted  it  a  temptation  of  the  devil  when  He  saw 
how  much  inducement  there  was  to  head  some  popular 
party  and  compete  with  kings  or  statesmen.  He 
was  no  agitator,  although  He  lived  in  an  age  abounding 
in  abuses.  And  this  limitation  of  His  work  was  due 
to  no  superficial  view  of  social  movements  nor  to  any 
mere  shrinking  from  the  rougher  work  of  life,  but 
to  His  perception  that  His  own  task  was  to  touch 
what  was  deepest  in  man,  and  to  lodge  in  human 
nature  forces  which  ultimately  would  achieve  all  that 
was  desirable.  The  cry  of  the  poor  against  the 
oppressor  was  never  louder  than  in  His  Hfetime ; 
slavery  was  universal  :  no  country  on  earth  enjoyed 
a  free  government.  Yet  our  Lord  most  carefully 
abstained  from  following  in  the  steps  of  a  Judas  the 


396     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS. 

Gaulanite,  and  from  intermeddling  with  social  or  State 
affairs.  He  came  to  found  a  kingdom,  and  that 
kingdom  was  to  exist  on  earth,  and  was  to  be  the 
ideal  condition  of  mankind  ;  but  He  trusted  to  move 
and  mould  society  by  regenerating  the  individual  and 
by  teaching  men  to  seek  in  the  first  place  not  what 
"the  Gentiles  seek" — happy  outward  conditions — but 
the  kingdom  of  God,  the  rule  of  God's  Spirit  in  the 
heart,  and  the  righteousness  that  comes  of  that.  It 
was  by  the  regeneration  of  individuals  society  was 
to  be  regenerated.  The  leaven  which  contact  with 
Him  imparted  to  the  individual  would  touch  and 
purify  the  whole  social  fabric. 

In  any  case  the  duty  of  individual  Christians  is 
plain.  Whether  needless  and  unjust  poverty  is  to 
be  relieved  by  social  revolution  or  by  the  happier  and 
surer,  if  slower,  method  of  leavening  society  with  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  it  is  the  part  of  every  Christian  man 
to  inform  himself  of  the  state  of  his  fellow-citizens 
and  to  bring  himself  in  some  practically  helpful  way 
into  connection  with  the  wretchedness  in  the  midst 
of  which  we  are  living.  To  shut  our  eyes  to  the 
squalor,  and  vice,  and  hopelessness  which  poverty  too 
often  brings,  to  seclude  ourselves  in  our  own  com- 
fortable homes  and  shut  out  all  sounds  and  signs  of 
misery,  to  ''abhor  the  affliction  of  the  afflicted,"  and 
practically  to  deny  that  it  is  better  to  visit  the  house 
of  mourning  than  the  house  of  feasting — this  is  simply 
to  furnish  proof  that  we  know  nothing  of  the  spirit 
of  Christ.  We  may  find  ourselves  quite  unable  to 
rectify  abuses  on  a  large  scale  or  to  discern  how 
poverty  can  be  absolutely  prevented,  but  we  can  do 
something  to  brighten  some  lives;  we  can  consider 
those  whose  hard  and  bare   lives  make  our  comforts 


xvi.]  THE  POOR.  397 

cheap ;  we  can  ask  ourselves  whether  we  are  quite 
free  from  blood-guiUiness  in  using  articles  which  are 
cheap  to  us  because  wrung  out  of  underpaid  and 
starving  hands.  It  is  true  that  anything  we  can  do 
may  be  but  a  scratching  of  the  surface,  the  lifting  of 
a  bucketful  out  of  an  overflov/ing  flood  which  should 
be  stopped  at  the  source  ;  still  we  must  do  what  we 
can,  and  all  knowledge  of  social  facts  and  kindly 
feeling  and  action  towards  the  oppressed  are  helpful, 
and  on  the  way  to  a  final  settlement  of  our  social 
condition.  Let  every  Christian  give  his  conscience 
fair  play,  let  him  ask  himself  what  Christ  would  do 
in  his  circumstances,  and  this  final  settlement  will  not 
be  long  postponed.  But  so  long  as  selfishness  rules, 
so  long  as  the  world  of  men  is  like  a  pit  full  of  loath- 
some creatures,  each  struggling  to  the  top  over  the 
heads  and  crushed  bodies  of  the  rest,  no  scheme  will 
alter  or  even  disguise  our  infamy. 

The  method  of  collecting  which  Paul  recommends 
was  in  all  probability  that  which  he  himself  practised. 
''  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week  let  every  one  of  you 
lay  by  him  in  store,  as  God  hath  prospered  him,  that 
there  be  no  gatherings  when  I  come."  This  verse  has 
sometimes  been  quoted  as  evidence  that  the  Christians 
met  for  worship  on  Sundays  as  we  do.  Manifestly 
it  shows  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  is  proof  that  the  first 
day  of  the  week  had  a  significance,  probably  as  the  day 
of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  possibly  only  for  some  trade 
reasons  now  unknov/n.  It  is  expressly  said  that  each 
was  to  lay  up  "  by  him  " — that  is,  not  in  a  public  fund, 
but  at  home  in  his  own  purse — what  he  wished  to  give. 
But  what  is  chiefly  to  be  noticed  is  that  Paul,  who 
ordinarily  is  so  free  from  preciseness  and  form,  here 
enjoins    the    precise    method    in    which    the    collection 


398     THE  FIRST  EPISTLE    TO    THE   CORINTHIANS. 

might  best  be  made.  That  is  to  say,  he  believed  in 
methodical  giving.  He  knew  the  value  of  steady 
accumulation.  He  laid  it  on  each  man's  conscience 
deliberately  to  say  how  much  he  would  give.  He 
wished  no  one  to  give  in  the  dark.  He  did  not  carry 
out  in  the  letter,  even  if  he  knew,  the  precept,  "  Let 
not  thy  right  hand  know  what  thy  left  hand  doeth." 
He  knew  how  men  seem  to  themselves  to  be  giving 
much  more  than  they  are  if  they  do  not  keep  an  exact 
account  of  what  they  give,  how  som.e  men  shrink  from 
knowing  definitely  the  proportion  they  give  away. 
And  therefore  he  presents  it  as  a  duty  we  have  each 
to  discharge  to  determine  what  proportion  we  can  give 
away,  and  if  God  prospers  us  and  increases  our  incomes, 
to  what  extent  we  should  increase  our  personal  expen- 
diture and  to  what  extent  use  for  charitable  objects  the 
additional  gain. 

The  Epistle  concludes  with  an  overflowing  expression 
of  affection  from  Paul  and  his  friends  to  the  Church  of 
Corinth  ;  but  suddenly  in  the  midst  of  this  there  occur 
the  startling  words,  "If  any  man  love  not  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be  Anathema."  "  Anathema " 
means  accursed.  What  induced  Paul  to  insert  these 
words  just  here,  it  is  difficult  to  see.  He  had  taken 
the  manuscript  out  of  the  hand  of  Sosthenes  and  written 
the  salutation  with  his  own  hand,  and  apparently  still 
with  his  own  hand  adds  this  startling  sentence.  Pro- 
bably his  feeling  was  that  all  his  lessons  of  charity  and 
every  other  lesson  he  had  been  inculcating  would  be 
in  vain  without  love  to  the  Lord  Jesus.  All  his  own 
love  for  the  Corinthians  had  sprung  from  this  source  ; 
and  he  knew  that  their  love  for  the  Jews  would  prove 
hollow  unless  it  too  was  animated  by  this  same  prin- 
ciple.     They   are   serious  words    for    us   all — serious 


xvi.]  TH^.   POOR.  399 


because  our  ovv^n  hearts  tell  us  they  are  just.  If  we 
do  not  love  the  Lord  Jesus,  what  good  thing  can  we 
love  ?  If  we  do  not  love  Him  who  is  simply  and  only 
good,  must  there  not  be  something  accidental,  super- 
ficial, unsafe,  about  our  love  for  anything  or  any  one 
besides  ?  If  we  have  not  learned  by  loving  Him  to 
love  all  that  is  worthy,  may  we  not  justly  fear  that 
we  are  yet  in  danger  of  losing  what  life  is  meant  to 
teach  and  to  give  ?  Trying  to  reach  the  truth  about 
ourselves,  do  we  find  that  we  have  attained  to  see  and 
to  love  what  is  worthy  ?  Can  we  say  with  something 
of  Paul's  conviction  and  joy,  *'  Maranatha  " — ''  The  Lord 
is  at  hand "  ?  Is  it  the  true  stay  of  our  spirit  that 
Christ  rules,  and  will  in  His  own  time  reconcile  all 
things  by  His  own  spirit  ? 


Date  Due 


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BS491.E96  46 

The  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 


Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1   1012  00057  4139 


%'^ 


